Unicorn Hunters first draft finished!

Posted on January 24, 2016 (Subscribe to Blog)

Today I typed the last word of the last sentence of the last page of Unicorn Hunters. It's now DONE!

Except of course now it's time to edit. The first two chapters are pretty well polished since they started off as a short story on this website, but the rest... not so much. It will take weeks to run through a complete edit, and after that I'll need to read it on my Kindle for further proofreading, and then it'll go to my beta reader, and then it'll come back for more edits, and then... and only then... it will be REALLY DONE!

Unicorn Hunters (Island of Fog Legacies)

The novel is around 66,000 words at the moment. That will change as I edit, but it's about right. It's shorter than the original nine Fog books, but a lot of that has to do with having only one main character instead of nine! That said, it's chock full of monsters and one really neat sidekick who will be a regular.

Though this is a standalone story, it really paves the way for plenty of unique adventures ahead, as you'll find out.

The first draft went quickly. I wrote the first two chapters back in September 2015 in the form of a short story called "Unicorn Poachers," but I completed the rest in the first three weeks of January. A first-draft novel in one month! But as I said, I now have to edit, and that's another month's work, plus the beta reading, proofreading, etc. So 2-3 months per novel is realistic.

Things pop into my head at random times. I went to bed the other night and realized Travis has had a 2-day adventure and not eaten a single thing. This wouldn't be noticeable if he was at home, because he could snatch a meal behind the scenes. But he's not at home. He's dealing with bad guys and a plethora of magical beasts, and I follow his movements pretty closely. Still, there are a few places I can add mealtimes, so it's not big deal to fix.

There's another short story called "The Soothsayer," written in November 2015, that relates heavily to this new novel. I considered using it as a prologue in the book itself, but I decided it's just not needed. It does, however, make a great prelude, kind of a teaser. So if you want to get a sneak peek at what's to come, read those two stories, "The Soothsayer" and "Unicorn Poachers," available now for free.

I'm going for an official release date of March 15, 2016, though I reserve the right to change this if I need to.

Now onto the editing...

Comment by CAROL COVATO on Sunday, January 24, 2016...

cant wait!!!!!!

Comment by ROSAMUND on Sunday, January 24, 2016...

OMG! Soooooo excited!! I need to get the new book!

Comment by LYRA on Sunday, January 24, 2016...

I can't wait! I'll be buying this right when it comes out!

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