Current Slate: February Update!

On Monday, January 10, I started writing a new Young Adult contemporary novel, with a few splashes of fantasy thrown in, titled THE WEDDING VIDEOGRAPHER and I hoped to have the first draft completed by the end of February. I'm happy to report I wrote the last word of the manuscript on Saturday, February 23!

This is my longest first draft since my debut novel Slate three years ago. The first draft of Slate was a whopping 108,000 words (eventually whittled down to 82,000), and all my first drafts since have averaged between 65,000 and 75,000. I knew Wedding Videographer was going to be longer about two weeks in, but I didn't expect it to be this long. The final word count for the first draft? 98,560 words! Whoa!

I'll share with you more info about my newest novel in the coming months, but for now just know that I have completed my tenth book, with (big) revisions to start in the coming days. I'm so excited about my newest project and can't wait to get to work on the second draft!

In other news, my YA novel Over the Rainbow, from last summer, just passed the first round of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel contest, which is very exciting. The first poem I've written in TEN YEARS is currently on submission to poetry journals. Next week I start a new short story, tentatively titled Christmas in March.

And finally... who likes FREE? My YA horror novel The Vampire Underground, the first book in my Grisly High trilogy, is FREE on Amazon! Check it out. The sequels The Zombie Playground and The Monster Apocalypse are now available!!