Saturday 4 February 2017

February Progress Update

Hey everyone, welcome back. I'm really pleased to announce that the third draft of Bovine Intervention is complete. Bovine Intervention is the full-length sequel to Déjà Moo, due for release in 2018. Why 2018? I've got a lot of edits ahead of me. The novel's only 83,312 words long so far, compared to Déjà Moo's some 130,000. And a third draft hardly compares to an eighth, in the case of Déjà Moo. (Yeah, editing includes more writing.)

For me, the editing process is way more than correcting typos and adding in more jokes. I've got to examine each of my characters' motivations and choices to ensure they're consistent and logical. I've got to remove characters that don't contribute to the narrative and replace them with others that do. Plots will be scrutinised, twists will be analysed and - hopefully - something resembling a fully-functioning novel will rise from the ashes of my successive drafts. And as for the scene in Chapter Seventeen that I didn't *technically* finish writing? Gods help me, it shall be done. 

In the meantime, the Lawnmowers, Inc. series isn't going anywhere. Both Déjà Moo and Encore Moo are available to purchase on Kindle in your local territory. And if that's not enough, here's a teaser for Bovine Intervention - the opening paragraph...

Sahila Kavita Paswan considered herself something of an expert, only nobody would ever find out, because nobody bothered to ask. Sahila wasn’t usually the kind of woman to offer opinions unsolicited, but she hadn’t many choices when it came to social interaction. It wasn’t much of a leap to suppose that someone who worked six eight-hour shifts a week at Aphrodite Records might have been able to tell you the difference between Bloodstone and Stoneblood, but you mightn’t be surprised to learn that very few people actually cared.

For the record, one was nu-metal with a ska twist, while the other was alternative baroque with a hip-hop flavour, but if you asked which was which you’d be met with no more than a quiet tut and an eye-roll. Sahila had no patience with amateurs. She could recite, on request, each of the eighteen number one hits held by the progressive techno group Bernie + the B-Sides – her karaoke staple – and could even advise which Belladonna Printemps album was a collector’s item and which was better served as a coaster. As it happened, she was in the middle of doing exactly this.

Bovine Intervention is due for release in 2018. Check back soon for a synopsis, cover reveal and some Lawnmowers, Inc. short stories focusing on the series' supporting characters. Until then, thanks for reading!

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