November 1st last year, I started writing draft zero for Book One of what we’re now calling the Assassins of Ghadid trilogy. I had a character and a scene and a vague idea of where it was all going.
Several rewrites, revisions, and now an editorial letter later, I think I can safely say Book One is done. Of course, we’ve already touched on what “finished” means, so I suppose we should define “done.”
Done, right now, for this book, is a book that has been cleaned up on both the line level and the plot level, is a book that has been tweaked and finessed and had most of its problems excised or otherwise fixed. It’s still not perfect, but the bits and pieces of doubt that hung on after it was “finished” have largely been shed.
Of course, this is just another step in the process. There may (will) be another round of edits. There will (definitely) be a round of line edits. I hope for and expect as much, because I – and my publisher – want this to be as close to 100% as we can make it, without, you know, having to sacrifice our souls and selves.
So in a way, it’s not done done, but on the very long road that is publishing, I thought it significant that almost exactly a year after starting a book that was little more than a scene and a character at the time, it’s now become this: a rewritten and revised and edited and re-edited and tweaked and thoroughly-loved book, about many characters and with many scenes, that even has a plot.
As for when it will be out – assuming there are no Super Major Oh God No edits on the horizon – the current word on the street is March 2019. So we’ve still got some time yet. And I’ve still got two more books to finish.
K. A. Doore 