Draft complete!

Finally, after several weeks of furious editing and re-drafting, I have finished writing my second novel, ELIXIR. Or at least, I've finished the very first stage of writing my second novel.

What happens next, for those aspiring authors following this blog, is the beginning of the rest of the hard work. I'm fortunate to have a very hands-on agent, Luigi Bonomi, and he likes to have a read of his client's novels before they are sent on to the publisher in question. This is a sort of safety-buffer, for reasons that any experienced author, published or not, will understand.

No matter how 'good' a writer I may ( or may not ) be, there comes a point where I can no longer see the woods for the trees in a manuscript. I'm not the sort of person who finishes a novel, looks at it and thinks: "Wow, fantastic, that's going to sell millions. I'm a genius." Mostly, I realise that I've gotten to the point where every 'i' is dotted and every 't' is crossed and I can't think of anything else I can do to improve the script. This is where the ever present editing work begins, and Luigi provides that first-glance to ensure that I haven't done anything blatantly stupid, that the story runs well and so on. He'll suggest revisions, flag-up any slow-spots where I've waffled or lost direction in any way, identify character flaws... the list can be endless, but hopefully will come back relatively manageable. Notice I say "will" come back. There's always changes, always something that won't be quite right. When it's one person writing 110,000 words, nobody can get it perfect first time, and when it's going to be on shelves across the English-speaking world and perhaps beyond, 'okay' isn't good enough...

Despite all of this, I'm really excited about ELIXIR. I reckon the story is an equal to that of COVENANT, that the main characters are developing really well and that my chief villain is quite possibly the best I've managed to create yet! There's plenty of action, a great new high-concept scientific core to the story that I hope will get people talking and great locations throughout!

Now for a well earned rest, my first proper break since Christmas. Next week, I'll start planning for book three, EVENT-HORIZON. Can't wait!

ELIXIR

So, COVENANT is now completed, with all of the copy-editing done, acknowledgements and dedications fulfilled and cover artwork given a BIG thumbs up. Which means my focus is now entirely on book two, "Elixir".

It's quite a daunting prospect, given the attention lavished upon Covenant by my brilliant publishers Simon & Schuster. There are now expectations to live up to, a bar which has to be equalled or beaten, for if the publisher isn't duly impressed enough by book two then the reading public probably won't be either.

I've been hard at work despite everything that's been happening over the last few months ( see previous posts ), not being the type of person to rest on my laurels now that I've achieved one of those elusive publishing deals that allows me to write full-time. When I signed the deal, I'd already provided a one-page synopsis for books two and three to accompany Covenant, so I knew the subject matter at hand in advance. I've now almost reached the stage where Elixir is about ready to go to Simon & Schuster - probably about a month's more work to do. Book three, however, is still at the one-page synopsis stage: the deadline for the completed work is December this year (!)

So far I'm really happy with Elixir, and feel reasonably confident that S&S will love it too, but you can never be too sure about how a fresh pair of eyes will respond to a new work. Fingers crossed that the feedback will be mostly positive, and I can start looking at beginning the plotting process for book three, "Event Horizon". I've only 8 months to write the novel, but it's taken me just 6 to write Elixir... It's not easy to create a page turner at the same time as doing so much research into the relevant science, but when it comes together it's the best feeling in the world. Can't wait to see what people think!

P.S. I'm also developing a synopsis for books 4, 5 and 6. Great new ideas and a real sense that this series has a long future ahead of it!