This is the Memorial Day weekend here in the United States, when we pause to remember everyone who has served to defend this country and its freedom(s) past, present, and future.
It would be WAY too easy for me to hop upon my soap box and share my opinions with you on a variety of pertinent topics; but other than a humble request to please remember those brave men and women who fought for so much more than just a three day weekend, that's not why either of us are here.
I'm still wearing my Editor's Hat right now going over SOLITAIRE. The main issue at the moment is trying to trim the manuscript's word count. The original final score was a whopping 67,562! Clearly the biggest novel I've ever written in my life, to date.
However, most publishers prefer any book to be between 60-65,000 words to help ease production issues and give both them and the readers a break price/cost wise.
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| My Editor's Hat 😉 |
I am seriously going back over everything with a fine tooth comb trying to eliminate the "unnecessary" wordage, but it's not fun.
I have managed to get the novel down to 66,366 words at the moment and am about halfway through the Second Act/Japan again.
Sometimes it was easy, rephrasing a sentence here or cutting out a word there.
Other moments were more difficult.
One scene in New York/Act One got totally rewritten to make it go quicker. Hated to lose a couple of the "bits" I had there, but maybe someday they can reappear somewhere else.
In any event, I hope everyone has a happy and safe 😷 Memorial Day.
Take care and I'll see you around the Internet.
Lee Houston, Junior
30 May, 2021
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