Wheatyard - Another Milestone

I've reached another milestone - the second draft of my novella Wheatyard is now complete, with the edits typed up, the whole thing printed up and bound, and handed off to my wife Julie for her thoughtful but tough assessment. The manuscript weighs in at 91 double-spaced pages, and about 38,000 words which, at an estimated 300 words per published page, would equate to 129 words in final book form. (War and Peace, it ain't.) As soon as I've absorbed Julie's thoughts and impressions I'll start in on the third draft which, when complete, I plan to distribute it to a few writer friends whose opinions I greatly respect, for further feedback. I'm planning on finishing the third draft by April and if everything still looks positive at that that time, I'll start to seriously evaluate potential publishers. Right now I have a few dream publishers in mind, none of whom I realistically expect to take a flyer on a first-time novelist such as myself. I'm sure I'll have to aim lower than that upper echelon, although I still might send them manuscripts on the proverbial wing and prayer.

If you're at all interested in how this book has progressed, I've created a new index, the very imaginatively named Wheatyard, which compiles all of my past references to the book. The past references are a bit sketchy, I'll admit, but now that the book is becoming more of a viable entity, I plan to comment on it here more regularly, and also publish some excerpts for your reading indulgence.