Sunborn

As I’ve mentioned before (but for the benefit of any new readers who may have found us here), I’m doing final revisions now on Sunborn, the long-delayed fourth novel in the Chaos Chronicles series. I think I’ve got the hardest part done—which was redoing the first half dozen chapters for improved pacing, etc., per my editor’s request. I hope I can wrap up the rest of the edits in the next few weeks, and have the book in the pipeline for publication next spring.

When I was at the Nebula Awards event last weekend (see entry below), I heard a great quote. Well, great from an ironic point of view, anyway. Author D.G. Compton (The Unsleeping Eye) related the quote, but it actually came from the late Edgar Pangborn (Davy), whose agent said to him, on the occasion of a disappointing royalty statement: “You’ll never make much money writing books like that. But the very best people will come to your funeral.”

Compton, with a wry smile, looked out over the roomful of SF writers and said, “It looks like all the best people are here. What do you suppose that means?”

I’ve been putting off writing this post, because I’ve been having a hard time dealing with the subject. If you’re new here, I turned in my newest novel, Sunborn, back at the beginning of December. This is the long-delayed, way-overdue new volume in my continuing story called The Chaos Chronicles. It was a vast relief to have it done at last, and out of my hands. Gone. Done. Finished. On its way.

Well, my editor finally finished going through it and came back to me with revision requests. This is not unusual, and is part of the normal editing process. But…I so badly wanted to be done with this book that it hit me like a ton of bricks. (No, I do not want to rewrite the first fifty pages for the umpteenth time! I’ve been there, done that, don’t want to do it again. I’m sick of it, do you hear me? Sick of it.) Well. That and a long scream will get you a headache.

So…I’m working on a revamped opening for the novel. I can’t say I’ve gotten very far. Chalk some of it up to getting sick (cough cough), and some of it to our having a visiting Japanese exchange student for a week (what a sweetheart—but sometimes we were definitely lost in translation). But chalk most of it up to my brain’s reluctance to go back to where it so recently trod…and trod…and trod.

I’ll get there. But send good rewrite vibrations my way, okay? I need them.

Oh, hey—happy first day of Spring, everyone! (Everyone in the northern hemisphere, I mean. Happy first day of Fall, downunder!)

Celebrate by looking at a particularly beautiful picture of the moon, as seen from the International Space Station!

Okay, I didn’t mean to not follow up for a week and a half, but I sort of crashed and burned after turning the book in. I still have some editing work to do on it, even before my editor comes to me with comments, but all the things I’d been putting off while finishing the book came rushing back at me.

Meanwhile, my editor and his assistants started saying they liked another title better. (After saying, all this time, “They’re all good—just pick the one you want.” Aaaiieee!) But I think we’re holding firm. I ran it past some more writing colleagues, and they preferred Sunborn.

I’ve been doing stuff like rewriting dust-jacket copy and coming up with a sort-of synopsis of the first three Chaos books, for the benefit of new readers. That’s a lot harder than you might think. It has to be short and enticing, and not a boring plot summary. It’s probably a good thing that this came right after we talked in the SF writing workshop about writing good query letters, and the importance of keeping it short and not writing boring plot summaries. I needed a dose of my own advice, and it was helpful.

Meanwhile, I just got word that scheduling changes at Tor are forcing a delay in the pub date. Auugghhh! Now it’s scheduled for winter of 2008, just a little over a year from now. The good news is that it’ll allow more time for proper preparation, by which we mean getting (we hope) nice quotes from other writers, in time to get the sales and marketing people excited about the book. (You probably thought publishers put all of those quotes on books to entice you to buy them. That’s partly true, but they do it even more to entice sales and marketing to get excited about the books.)

That about all I have on Sunborn right now. But I’ll sign off with the news that wrestling season has just kicked off for my daughter, and she started off with a pin in her first meet. That’s the way to start your senior year!

Yes, I have decided to stick with the original title! And I have just five minutes ago emailed the completed manuscript to my editor. (Long, long sigh.) And now…I have been up all night, and I am going to bed. To bed, to bed, to bed….

More on all this later.

Earlier today, a friend asked me by email how the chaos of my Chaos book was coming. Here’s how I answered: “You remember the movie Dr. Strangelove? At the end, where Slim Pickens rides the A-bomb down to its target like a rodeo rider, waving his cowboy hat like a maniac? He shrinks away and the ground rises up fast? That’s where I am in the book.”

Well, a short time ago, I finished up the 2nd major draft of Sunborn—I mean, Cradle of Stars—I mean, Crucible of Stars—I mean, no I don’t know yet what the title is! Who cares? Chaos Chronicles Book 4. Ya-ya-ya-ya-yah!!!

What a killer! But in the end, I started enjoying it and having fun again. I think I straightened out all the insane chapters that made no sense in the first draft, and I cut out maybe 140 pages outright, and added in 100 pages of new. This draft is about 40 pages shorter than the first.

(You understand, don’t you—when I say “2nd draft,” I mean second time through from beginning to end. Pick a scene or chapter at random, and it’s probably had 5 or 8 or 10 drafts.)

Now…I have approximately one week before the date I promised it to my editor, do or die. I start a final pass tomorrow, from page 1. There’s stuff I have flagged for further attention, and I’m sure the early chapters (not looked at in a year!) will benefit from tightening. That’s to get it into good enough shape to send it in, and hopefully for him to say, yeah, we can send this out to people and hope we get some quotes.

Then the real editing begins. But more on that later.

Cradle of Stars? Crucible of Stars? In Search of the Lost Star? No, no….