October 2005
Well, I managed to make it through another round of edits on A Clockwork Murder. I think I have one more round left until the book is ready to be shopped around, but I guess the market will tell me if I'm right or not.
I've been hearing about Lulu.com, an online print on demand service, and I wanted to try it out. I don't foresee using it for my novels, however, it might be useful for printing my yearly calendar. As a test case, I uploaded my Italy calendar from this year, but with the current date, so you can use it in 2006. If you get a copy of the calendar, please let me know how it turned out. I'll be getting my own copies, but it's always good to hear other opinions. As time permits, I'll add more calendars to the site.
I decided to do the National Novel Writing Month again this year, and this time I'll be doing my biotech thriller. I wanted to try something completely different, so I'm writing it in more of an adventure style, rather than the mystery or suspense thriller style. I've heard from several people that it's difficult to cross genres, especially between fantasy and techno thriller. However, I read an interview with James Rollins, and he managed to do just that, so there's hope for me yet.
Thrillers are typically longer than mysteries, so I expect to finish the first draft sometime in January. If I get on a roll during November, perhaps I can keep up the momentum and finish it by the end of the year. Once I've finished that rough draft, I'll need a break from composing, and, conveniently enough, A Clockwork Murder will be ready for its final edit.
If all goes well, I'll be 50,000 words into my biotech thriller when it's time for the next newsletter. Until then, check out James Rollins and Jim Butcher to keep you in the right mood for my work.
--Todd