Did my "final" edit (I put "final" in quotation marks, because I'll still have to go through the page proofs later this year or early in 2009) of Dark Calling, book 9 of The Demonata, over the weekend. I thought it would stretch into Monday, maybe even Tuesday, but I put in some extra hours, and things went smoothly, so I managed to wrap it up late Sunday. I'm very pleased with how it's turned out. There's no getting away from the fact that middle section is going to prove a bit of a challenge for some readers, but it's much tighter and pacier than when I first approached it. Heh. That's a major understatement!!! I think there would have been roars of outrage if I'd released the first draft of the book!! While I enjoyed going in all sorts of weird directions on it, I knew even while I was writing it that probably nobody else but me would be interested in it as it stood! Once I'd worked it out of my system, and thrown down all the ideas I could think of, I sifted through the book over the next few drafts and cropped it down relentlessly, mercilessly, cutting out anything that wasn't absolutely necessary, injecting some action scenes and a sense of menace, giving it a few more human qualities and characters for readers to relate to. I think it doesn its job well now. The middle third still slows things down a bit, sure, but not to the point where the book comes to a standstill. And hopefully the stuff that remains will intrigue readers and fire their imaginations the same way it did with me. Only in a much more entertaining fashion!!!!

Phew -- I've done a LOT of editing this year!!! To be honest, I'm kind of glad to be hitting the road for most of the next five weeks, just to give myself a break. I always do a lot of editing in any given year, because of the way I work, juggling several books at the same time. But I did more this year than usual, because I wanted to get ahead on both The City series and the fantasy book and four book series that will follow The Demonata. There was no REAL need to get as far ahead as I did, but I like being several steps ahead of my publication schedule. That means I never have to worry about deadlines, and I never have to rush any stage of a book. It lets me ensure quality control. Although I still have to do lots of editing on the books that I've been working on this year, they've all come through the crucial first edit (at least -- most of them are even further advanced), so they're in very strong shape. I could actually write no more new material in the near future, and still bring out 3 books a year up until 2012!!!!!! So if I wanted to take most of the next 2 or 3 years off, and only handle the relatively straightforward latter-stage editing duties on the books already in the bag, I could!!!! However, that's not the plan. What I WANT to do is write plenty of new material over the next few years, so that I can remain as far ahead of the game as I am, and continue to bring out new books on a regular basis far into the teens of the twenty-first century, and beyond!!

The empire of Shan is still in its infancy as far as I'm concerned, with hopefully even bigger and better things to come. If the gods of the imagination and fate stay good to me, you guys ain't seen nothing yet!!!!!