Winding In The Strings.

Photo by Louis.

c2011 (S)


Finally, my new mystery novel is in the home stretch. At 58,000 words with a chapter or two to go, that is a bit of a relief after struggling in the 20,000 to 40,000-word range.

Now all I have to do is wind up the remaining strings, get Inspector Maintenon home to Paris again, and that will be about it. As I go through the novel a few times, I'll flesh out characters and fill in descriptions. In a first draft, I am notorious for not describing the rooms people are in, or the clothes they are wearing. This book will probably go closer to 70,000 words.

Hopefully, there aren't too many characters running around naked as a jaybird in this book, but there may be one or two.

Poor old Inspector Gilles Maintenon! He lost his wife a year and a half ago, and it's like he just can't get a break.

With the plot now complete, I have little choice but to start at the beginning and read this manuscript.

The weather has been nice lately, and with winter coming, I am reluctant to spend fourteen hours a day at the computer, but that will change by the end of the month, when it's going to be really cold, wet, windy, and bleak. In the meantime, this book is an excuse to get out on 'the moors,' or as close a substitute as can be found in southern Ontario.