Revisions
I'm working hard on final revisions to the Dindi mss, so I can meet my deadline. I'm down to the last three chapters that need serious re-writes. The tricky part is trying to tighten the pace. The ending now is a bit rambling, I think.
Evrey book in this series ends on a cliffhanger. This is ironic, because I originally started Dindi to be a single title book (as opposed to my Palem mss) to *not* end on a cliffhanger, so I could sell it as the perfect stand-alone first book. Ha.
The original draft was too long, even after I combined characters, limited travel, cut 40,000 words....I just couldn't cut any more without gutting the heart of the story, so I decided to go in the opposite direction, and expand it into a series. I've worked hard to keep the new books as close to 100,000 words I as I could. (Book One, at present, looks like about 114,000 words.)
The original book had 7 sections, and I just made each section a book. I put the characters, travels and battles back in which I had cut before. The main story arc is exactly the same, and the ending is the same.
This is why I can't really change the fact that each book ends on a cliffhanger. The books of the series can't stand alone because they're all part of a single story arc. The heart of the story is a faery riddle, the riddle of the Windwheel and the Maze, which the heroine needs to save a faery race from extinction. In each book, she gets a little closer to her goal; there are also peripheral characters who appear in each book.
Two characters, Brena and Rthan, appear in Book One, and their romance is resolved at the end of the book. There's also another side story woven into the narrative, about the attempts of Vessia the Corn Maiden and her companions to overthrow a tyrant called the Bone Whistler twenty years before. That story also reaches a climax and conclusion in Book One. I'm hoping this is enough to give the readers a sense of resolution and satisfaction, even as they are also eager (I hope) to read on to find out what happens to Dindi and Kavio, the heroine and hero.
Evrey book in this series ends on a cliffhanger. This is ironic, because I originally started Dindi to be a single title book (as opposed to my Palem mss) to *not* end on a cliffhanger, so I could sell it as the perfect stand-alone first book. Ha.
The original draft was too long, even after I combined characters, limited travel, cut 40,000 words....I just couldn't cut any more without gutting the heart of the story, so I decided to go in the opposite direction, and expand it into a series. I've worked hard to keep the new books as close to 100,000 words I as I could. (Book One, at present, looks like about 114,000 words.)
The original book had 7 sections, and I just made each section a book. I put the characters, travels and battles back in which I had cut before. The main story arc is exactly the same, and the ending is the same.
This is why I can't really change the fact that each book ends on a cliffhanger. The books of the series can't stand alone because they're all part of a single story arc. The heart of the story is a faery riddle, the riddle of the Windwheel and the Maze, which the heroine needs to save a faery race from extinction. In each book, she gets a little closer to her goal; there are also peripheral characters who appear in each book.
Two characters, Brena and Rthan, appear in Book One, and their romance is resolved at the end of the book. There's also another side story woven into the narrative, about the attempts of Vessia the Corn Maiden and her companions to overthrow a tyrant called the Bone Whistler twenty years before. That story also reaches a climax and conclusion in Book One. I'm hoping this is enough to give the readers a sense of resolution and satisfaction, even as they are also eager (I hope) to read on to find out what happens to Dindi and Kavio, the heroine and hero.
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