I'm taking a wee break before I get back to writing, and I have to say, this book is not going to be the same type, style, or even size as the last one. I am still going to have the publisher print the book in size 12 font because I think people should be able to read the words without squinting. Maybe that's just me, but I am all but not going back to reading book books, physical books, because the font is set at 11, and where that may seem like only a bit smaller than 12, which is it, it's monumental to me. I can read 12 without issues. I just can't focus on the line I need to be focusing on when I read something smaller. OK, yeah, so it's just me.
I am on Chapter 15. If you read yesterday's blog you know I was on Chapter 12 when all hell broke out at my house after the computer ate my work. I had put in over 6000 words and the damn thing just stopped working and ate my manuscript. I had the OLD manuscript saved and I had been saving my work as I went along, but NOPE, it was gone. I thought I was going to have a conniption. I really did. God prevailed, and I found the other words just sort of hanging out in a file where they should not have been. I have zero clue as to how it happened, but I quickly copied and pasted them into a new document and then I saved that document a few times. That was incredibly scary and I hope I never have that happen to me again.
Today is a new day. I've written another three chapters today, and am about to write Chapter 15 soon. I have 90 written pages at this point, but by 90 it is closer to about 150 in the actual book. The pages online are bigger. I think I did the math once and it was like 310-320 words per page when I'm typing them, but when they get sent off to be formatted, there are about 240-260 words per page, and that's a 9x6 page; it may be that there are fewer words on the other sizes of books. I don't want this book, the Murder Book, to be a 9x6. I want it to be a regular-sized book. In fact, when I send off the manuscript of "Of Kilted Pleasure" to be redone, I think I'll have it done in a smaller-sized book as well. I have NO clue why I agreed to the 9x6 for it. Now, I need to go measure the books I like so I can see what size my book will be. I'll be right back.
Now, I know. The books I buy, or the ones I used to buy, that are murder or mystery-type books are either 7.5 x4, or they are 8x5. I like either of those better than 9x6. I just can't understand why I would have succumbed to the thinking that a 9x6 book would be OK. It's just not. I don't like it. I pick up my book to read it and say NOPE...I don't like it. The problems an author must face. I know, they are so very very trivial, and I need to not be so bothered. I just think, and now I know, that I prefer the 7x4 size and 12 font. It may end up being a 400-page book, but John Grisham does that all the time. If it's good enough for John, it's good enough for me.
Chapter 15 will be really cool. I'm about to introduce the actual book which gives my book the title of "Murder Book". It is a book about a detective solving a few murders, but there is an actual book where the prominent murders are listed and there are some that haven't happened yet. Oh no! I'm giving it all away. It's OK, even if someone steals my idea I have more. I am never without a good story. The fact that this book will have to wait until I'm flush money-wise (again) sort of makes me sad, but then again, it gives me the chance to go through it a number of times to be sure I've corrected all mistakes, big and small, fat and thin, pretty and ugly. I have to say, this time, I am taking it upon myself to be a bit more attentive in the initial writing stage(s) and I'm finding that I'm fluffing and stuffing more up front too. When I do go through the thing I won't be adding too terribly much.
Right now the character of Eoghan MacRae, a Scottish singer and songwriter, who has been faulted by his wife, and is about to be fired by his employer, is privately asking himself boundary questions which he'll have to come to grips with either before the end of this book, or at the beginning of the next. He'll end up being a sort of side-kick and pseudo detective in these books; maybe one day he'll even go so far as to get his license and put his name on the door. Nick doesn't even have a door at this point. He travels and is loaned out quite often. Not one to settle down too quickly, Posh finds the love of his yester-life is available again. He may have a second chance. That may be at the end of this book or the beginning of the next.
The good news is, I'm on Chapter 15! I will write another two today probably, and another 3 or 4 chapters tomorrow. I'll be at least 1/2 way through by this time tomorrow, and I'll know more about what will end up in this book and what will be carried over - - I think the murders have stopped in this one now, and now it's all about the disposals, the reasoning, the clues, and the gusto it takes to step out of ones comfort zones to make things click! (Oh, and there's a really cute dog in this one too. Really cute.)
Bye!!
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