DUNE 7 BLOG

Saturday, June 3, 2006

Loose Ends

Brian and I have both finished reading through the HUNTERS OF DUNE galleys, combing through line-by-line to catch any typos, any inconsistencies, and make any last-minute changes. Simultaneously, we received the copy-edited manuscript from our British publisher, and I compared the markings page by page to incorporate all of the corrections. All in all, we had quite a few sets of eyes checking this book, as usual, to try to make the novel as perfect as possible.

In the meantime, I have finished signing all 10,000 numbered signature sheets for the special copies of HUNTERS and Brian is working his way through the boxes. The picture on the left shows me after about 7000 autographs (not all in one night!), with a much-needed glass of wine at hand and a dutiful cat on the lap.

For the past two weeks I have also been charging through the first major edit of METAL SWARM, tightening and cleaning, adding necessary scenes and description. In a book with 135 chapters, reading it through is the only way I can see holes to plug up, loose ends of the plot, sequences where a particular character is missing for too many chapters in a row. As such, I found I needed to add five more chapters interspersed throughout the novel.

On Friday night I sat in my favorite local brewery and pizzeria, reviewing the skeleton and outline for METAL SWARM and outlining the five add-on chapters. (Rebecca is holed up in a hotel for three days, where she is reading and editing my novel SLAN HUNTER without being interrupted.) Saturday, armed with my outlines and notes, tape recorder and walking stick, I drove out to the ski town of Breckenridge in the mountains for a hike. I walked around old mining ruins, climbing to lovely Mayflower Lake (at 11,000 ft), then ascending past rushing Continental Falls to Lower Mohawk Lake (11,500 ft) and finally, after a strenuous climb and slogging through still-deep snow, I made it up to 11,800 ft elevation and Upper Mohawk Lake, which was still quite frozen. Along the way, I managed to dictate all the chapters, then came home to get back to editing for the rest of the evening.

-- KJA

Continental Falls