Working my trousers to the bone again . . .

I'm hard at work writing the third volume in the Maxwell series.  So far I'm up to about 70,000 words out of a planned total of 110,000-120,000, or about a third longer than the first two books in the series (listed in the sidebar).  This will allow me to make the plot more complex and introduce more events and growth points, which I hope will satisfy some of the criticisms leveled at the first books.

It's interesting to read other people's reviews of my books, and try to learn from them.  Some readers are very useful in that regard;  they not only say what they didn't like, but why they didn't like it, and give examples.  This helps me see at once where they're coming from, and whether or not I agree with them.  Others merely express satisfaction or dissatisfaction, without advancing any evidence or describing any specific flaws, which makes it a lot harder to learn from their comments.

(Some reviewers have ideas that are . . . well, difficult.  One was vehement in his condemnation of a scene in the first Maxwell novel, where the protagonist stabs another in the hand with a fork.  He regarded this as completely implausible and a real turnoff.  However, that's one of the scenes in the book that's actually based on fact!  There really was such an incident - and yes, the victim did have to go to hospital to get the fork removed.  I don't know why he found it so hard to believe.)

I'm also trying to introduce more conflict and complexity into the challenges my protagonist faces as he proceeds with his career.  Sure, he's the hero of the series, so obviously he's going to prevail - but some people found that things went too easily for him in the first book, and that he breezed through every difficulty without ever being really challenged.  I tried to change that in the second book, with (I think) some success, but I've still got some way to go.  Writing really is a learning curve.  One can learn a lot from reading about the craft, but eventually one has to settle down and actually do it, and learn from one's mistakes and shortcomings.  Clearly, I've got a lot of learning material!  Fortunately, my readers seem to think that the novels' good points outweigh their negatives, and they're still selling moderately well.  I'll try to make the rest of the series even better, book by book.

Miss D. and I will be heading for Blogorado next week, and spending some time visiting Sarah Hoyt and others while we're in that neck of the woods.  We're looking forward to the trip (we're driving this year), but it's going to eat into my writing time.  I want to have the book finished in penultimate draft by the end of October, so I can get it out to beta readers for a quick once-over and to an independent editor for a more thorough check.  By mid-November I need to be formatting it for publication.  It's going to be a rush, but by God's grade and with the help of my friends, I'll get there.

(If any of you would like to be part of a high-speed beta reading team, willing to read the book in a few days from late October and send feedback by not later than November 10th, please leave your name in Comments below or send me an e-mail - my address is in my blog profile.  Please make sure I have some way to respond to you, like an e-mail address.  Some of you are already on my list, of course, but it would help if you could confirm your availability in that time window.  Thanks.)

Peter