I thought it would be fun to keep you up to date on what it is I’m working on for the future. Touch of Fate is my first novel, but it will not be my last!
A month ago I put the words “THE END” at the bottom of a new rough draft — The Immortality Virus. Just as with Touch of Fate, The Immortality Virus began as a short story. I came up with it in August of 2005, shortly after sending Touch of Fate to Twilight Times. It did not take me long to realize that The Immortality Virus was too big for its breeches. It needed to be a novel from the start.
I took notes for a few months, had a baby, and then started writing the rough draft this past spring. Over the summer, I started working with two writers I met online who both have promising futures. We exchanged chapters every week and it encouraged me to keep producing.
I wrote The Immortality Virus a little differently from Touch of Fate. I did less planning and outlining this time around. I developed a character, a world, and a story problem. Then I let my main character, Grace, run around the world and try to solve the problem. I had fun, not knowing what was coming next. I introduced a love interest to her and had no idea how it would turn out. (Actually, I still don’t know – I may change it in the rewrite!)
I finished my rough draft just in time to set it aside and work on some marketing for Touch of Fate. My plan is to do a partial rewrite and thorough revision next summer, making use of the comments I received from my readers.
The Immortality Virus is a science fiction novel set about 450 years in the future. Humanity has stopped aging and as a result, there are terrible cultural and political problems. Grace Harper is a private investigator who is charged with looking for the man who messed up the world by stopping the aging process – at least, if he’s alive.
The reason that I have chosen to wait until the middle of next year to finish this is that I want to have time to distance myself from the rough draft so that when the time comes, I can look at it with a fresh eye. Also, since Touch of Fate will not be released to paperback until next year, I am not in a hurry to get this book out yet. I want my first novel to go for a spin.
In the meantime, and in between marketing, I am going to start work on another rough draft. Wish me luck – it’s the first book in the science fantasy trilogy I’ve been working on since I was eleven years old! (Back then, it was a single short story.) Last year I received some excellent advice and feel confident that I know what to do with it this time. (Yeah, yeah, how many times have I said that? But this time I’m older, wiser, and have the experience of having finished a novel.)