I’ve gotten the manuscript for my second novel Dutchman’s Puzzle as complete as I can make it. I’ve rewritten it according to the advice I got in some excellent critiques, I’ve had three editors look for typos and bad writing, and today I formatted a copy of the manuscript for e-book publication. Phew.

Tomorrow, I will format the paper-book manuscript and finish the cover design.

Thursday, I send it out for publication. Which means the e-book versions will be available within a week on Smashwords and Amazon, and the print version will likely follow a few days after that on Lulu, with distribution to the major online book retailers about a month later, if my experience with the first novel is any indication.

I never thought I’d be a writer. Oh, I wrote, no doubt about it, most all my life. But I never really seriously tackled fiction. In fact, that first novel lay around in bits and pieces for more than 20 years before I finally got my act together and finished it. But now I’m on a roll.

The first two books are set in the same fictional small town and with many of the same characters in both books. The third novel, which will likely take me more than a year to finish, is based on my family history, starting in Canada in 1902 and ending up… well, I’m not sure where, but sometime around 1980. The 50,000 words I wrote for NaNoWriMo last year weren’t even half of one character’s story, and there are three main characters, a grandmother, mother, and daughter. Yeah, it’s gonna be a long book. And a good one, if my instincts are correct. Hey, there’s gotta be some advantage to being old. 🙂

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