January Status: Rights of Use
I am long, long overdue for a good, old status post!
Rights of Use is still coming, believe it or not, and it’s making good progress. Draft 11 fixed all the remaining plot problems in a beautiful weave of storylines I didn’t know this book could manage. Now, I’m just fixing some scene-level problems, and I’ll be heading into final edits after that.
It looks like my publishing contract fell through, but I don’t plan on finding another publisher. At this point, I’d rather have my hands in the whole process.
Downside: it’s more work for me.
Upside: I don’t have to wonder what’s going on, and I can optimize all the work as a system.
After all, once I got the contract, learning project planning and implementing it for a very complex aerospace test was the first thing that delayed this book. (The test was successful, thanks for asking. I got my picture in a magazine. The test article got five photos in that one.)
Another upside: Since I’ll retain the rights, I’m planning to release two versions. First, the final one. Then I’d like to share an interactive version with deleted scenes and alternate realities. The interactive version will need to be electronic only, because it’s going to be convoluted, but I’m super excited to share it.
And I’m super excited to be making forward progress on this book. This is draft 11.1, and I’ve spent ten years on this story. When I started rewriting it in 2007, I did it because I believe in this series and these characters. But in every revision, I’ve fallen more and more in love with this first story and these young characters.
It’s nigh time to release them into the world.
