DUNE BLOG

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Paul of Dune and Ashes of Worlds Update

Even while I've been busy on my various tours and appearances, I still manage to get a little bit of writing and editing done in my few moments of downtime. (If I don't edit or write, then I feel miserable.)

During the SANDWORMS tour, I received the last transcribed chapters of my half of PAUL OF DUNE from my typist and I worked on completing my first-draft edit so that I could give them to Brian. Brian, meanwhile, kept himself busy writing his final few chapters, and we brainstormed on the drives and over dinners. On the plane flight home to Denver at the end of the tour, I finished editing the chapters and then sent them off to Brian at his home. He was taking the train from San Diego back up to Seattle, and he called me from a whistle-stop along the way to tell me that he had finished writing his last chapter. Now he and his wife are heading off on a cruise and several weeks of relaxation in Europe, where Brian will be putting all of our chapters together and giving the entire manuscript the first major edit.

Now I could turn all my attention to THE ASHES OF WORLDS. I received a lengthy and detailed critique letter from my Warner editor, Jaime Levine (who has edited all seven books in the Saga of Seven Suns). On the Tuesday before DragonCon, I had a meeting with my test readers and spent several hours discussing their reactions and possible solutions to problems or ways to improve parts that didn't quite work yet. In the week since, I have input all of their corrections, made notes of larger-scale revisions, and got the whole file ready for its next rewrite, which I'll try to complete during the month in Australia. Fortunately, on the 15-hour flight, there's a power jack in the seat so I don't have to worry about running out of laptop battery.

-- KJA