Novel Update

I thought I should post a mid-month update on the progress of my latest novel as well as ask your opinions on the cover. I’m 70% through the first round of edits. My goal is to finish editing the entire book by the end of the month.

Two weeks from today, I leave for another trip to Kenya. This will be my seventh journey there, as hard as that is to believe, and for the first time, it is going to be mostly a pure vacation. We don’t have any volunteer work planned, but we are still open to whatever our hosts ask of us.

When I get back on October 18, I’ll do another edit on the book as well as finalize the cover. Then by the first of November, I hope to start working on publishing it on Amazon.

Uffda, that’s a lot of ground to cover, both literally and figuratively.

As you may recall from my mid-August post, the novel is about three women – one living in the mid-eighteen hundreds and two in the very near future. The future setting – ten years or so from now – is somewhat dystopian, and it’s up to the two heroines living then to initiate the change to bring our country back to normalcy. The one-room schoolhouse in Prior Ridge (formerly Prior Gulch) is the pivotal character in all of this.  Also, the teacher who worked there when the school first opened is an inspiration to the other two women.

Here are some of the cover concepts I’ve come up with based on that premise. Remember, they are just ideas; I’m sure whichever is the closest to the best one still needs some work. I just wonder which concept to move forward with. Or I could scrap them all.

Oh, and last thing. The title went from “Save Our School” to “Rewrite the Now,” but I want to thank one of Hubby’s cousins for sending me the winning title – “Prior to Now.” Thanks, Sherry! 

Thought #1 - mostly about the setting - farm land in the upper Midwest

#2 - focus on the one-room school, but needs a better graphic artist than me so it doesn't looked plopped on the page

#3 - my great-grandmother Anna posing as the school teacher Emma

#4 - great-granma again, but in both 3 and 4, she needs to stop hovering. 

where did august go?

 For all that I had happening in August, I did really well on my goals. Not only did I accomplish three-fifths of them, but I also went camping for a week, hosted a friend from out of town for four days, went to Iowa to visit Hubby’s brother for three days, took my sister to her class reunion, had a dentist appointment AND worked at the clinic for six and a half days!

Wow! I told myself I wouldn’t book a month that full again, and – well – I’ll tell you about that shortly.

Here are my August goals:

1.     Finish writing my novel, “Rewrite the Now.” Yes, the rough draft is finished, as you may already have heard.

2.     Come up with some cover concepts for it. I keep thinking about it but haven’t had any luck coming up with anything specific.  

3.     Keep organizing the photos on my laptop. Hmm? Not really.

4.     Wash half of the windows in my house. Let’s see, I washed 75% of the house’s windows. I so wanted to finish them this week, but I worked those three days at the old job instead.  

5.     Tend to my vegetable garden, freezing what can be frozen and tearing down what is done for the season. Yup, I’ve been freezing cherry tomatoes and zucchini like crazy. Even bought green beans and a head of cabbage at the farmer’s market and froze those. Also, took down half the garden which was done producing.

Here we are in September already. And this month is booked as full as August. I’m going camping with my son one weekend, which coincides with a research trip for my current novel, so I can’t complain about that. I’m also visiting a friend out of state for three days, and Hubby’s nephew and his wife are coming for a weekend. And I leave for my trip to Kenya on October 2, so I probably should plan and pack before then.

In late August, I heard that two of my co-workers were quitting, which is why I worked those extra three days the end of the month. One of those days, the manager asked me into her office to find out if I’d work any days in September. I told her which days I was free, and she put me on the schedule pretty much all of them.

Oh, and I forgot, that as I post this, I am at my daughter’s house, dog sitting for her. Which is actually okay, because I have lots of free time to edit my novel.

Here we go September goals:

1.     Finish the first round of edits on my novel. Oh, and by the way, I changed the name of it to “Prior to Now.” It takes place in a town named Prior Ridge, and the story flips back and forth from the past to the now, so I kinda like the new name. Thanks goes out to the friend who thought of it.

2.     Make the cover for the novel. This has got me stumped, but I will get on it.

3.     Finish washing those last three windows in the house.

4.     Take down my garden for the year. Not much is growing anymore out there, oh, except for those stupid zucchinis!

5.     Finish planning our trip to Kenya. Yeah!

I think that is enough for the month. Come October, I have two weeks to relax in Kenya; not even dragging along my laptop. Then two weeks to finish up the novel. Life is good, albeit busy.      

Wishing you the very best. Chris 

Looking for a much smaller schoolhouse, made of brick, for my novel's cover. Yes, I could find a stock photo, but where is the fun in that?