I'm two weeks away from posting the first chapter of "Triptych." Wow! It's hard to believe that six chapters are already back from the editors with few changes and I'm nearly finished with the seventh chapter. I expect that I'll have 12 chapters, or half the book, written when I start posting.
And there's lots of good stuff happening. Tony, Lissa, and Melody are adjusting to being a family, exploring new businesses and painting styles, and trying to figure out how it works when all three of them are dating one person.
So, don't give up hope!
The rewrite of "Model Student" is also progressing well and will repost just before "Triptych" begins. There are several "clean-up" things being done on this to make sure that the calendar is straight, Tony's classes are consistent, timing and names of racquetball competitions are correct, and school names and locations are correct.
But don't get worried that you won't know who is doing what in the new book. "Triptych" begins with a prologue that catches up the story to date and covers any changes that were made to the original. I want people to be able to read "Triptych" without being required to read "Model Student," though, of course, I'm hoping that everyone will.
And to reach a wider audience, the first volume of the new Model Student series will be released on-line at about the same time for Kindle and for Nook (and others). I'll be announcing that soon. The new series in book form will include "Mural," covering Model Student up through the painting of Tony's mural, "Rhapsody Suite," covering the second half including the racquetball tournaments and posing party, "Triptych" which will cover the first half of the new novel, and finally, the second half of the new work will tentatively be titled "Memorial." The stories posted here at SOL are being split for online sales because they are too long for normal works in this genre.
I'll be giving more details as we get closer to launch time. Hope you're as excited as I am.
I'm 25 days from launching "Triptych." Last night I sent the first four chapters and prologue off to my editors to see if I actually have a story or if the whole thing is more boring teen angst. They'll probably correct some of my spelling, too. :)
The first four chapters have taken the menage through a month back together and their worlds have been tossed in a blender. Everyone has faced a crisis and more people are finding out about their odd living arrangement.
And school hasn't even started yet!
The next couple of chapters will throw another few bones in the soup and then we'll spend the rest of the book trying to sort it all out from among the tangle of legs and arms (and other body parts) in the big bed.
It's exciting. My characters have once again asserted their independence and done things I never expected.
In the midst of this, I have also completed two character interviews. I expect there to be a total of 10 of these, somewhat short conversations with the people you meet in the story. They're fun, but damn teens are smartasses when they're talking to an old fart.
Rewrite of first novel progresses in parallel and the clean-up is going well. If you read "Model Student" you should be able to read the prologue to "Triptych" and catch up on any details that were changed in the original. No need to reread.
At 20,000 words and growing rapidly, I've decided to schedule the start of "Triptych." Up till now, I've just said that I'd start posting in June. But June has the longest days of the year in it. Who can wait through all that?
Monday, June 4, I'll post a revised cast (now that I know who some more of the characters are), a Prologue (so people won't have to go back to read "Model Student" in order to read "Triptych"), and the complete first chapter of the new story. Then postings will continue on Mondays and Thursdays for 10-12 weeks. On Saturdays, I'll post a character interview. Interviews won't contain spoilers, but they will give you a view of what makes certain characters tick that isn't included in the main story.
So start the countdown clock. It's T-31 and counting!
Editing of Model Student and writing Triptych are progressing simultaneously. I've been focusing on cleaning up details that were inconsistent during the first draft writing, some of which have a strong bearing on the continuing story. Among those big decisions were the naming of the two schools involved and the setting.
Though I managed to keep the location vague in the first volume, I aluded to various features around Portland, OR. So, decision number one was to move the story to Seattle. There are a number of reasons for this, but the varied terrain and views of both mountains and water, plus some social factors that will become significant in Triptych, all played a part in making this change. I toured both cities during April (as well as a few other possible locations) and decided this was the best choice for a diverse setting appropriate to the continuing story.
I never liked the names of my two colleges. So, I've done a search of several different area schools, place names, and naming conventions and have arrived at the final names for the two colleges. Tony is enrolled at the Pacific College of the Arts and Design, referred to as PCAD. The name is similar to both the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) and the Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA). The storyline calls for students studying varying disciplines on a BFA program, including Painting, Theater, Dance, Advertising Design, Textile Design, and Music. I think "Arts and Design" covers this well.
I really disliked the name of the neighboring college that joins with PCAD for a dual degree program. It just never worked for me, but I was stuck with it until I could do a rewrite. I got a lot of great suggestions from readers and arrived at the following: Snoqualmie City University (SCU). I chose to make this a university rather than a college as I see such a wide variety of programs available and a strong athletic program even if it is only Division III. Tony is having to make a pretty big decision regarding whether to study Exercise Science and admit to being a jock, or English Literature and consider himself to have two worthless degrees. We'll see on that front.
So there you have it. I'm now 13,000 words into Triptych and already the characters are laying waste to my carefully laid plans.
I've started conducting interviews with my characters. Among the first to be interviewed will be Melody, Lissa, Kate, and Beth. I'm not interviewing Tony because it's his story and his inner thoughts and feelings keep coming out regardless. But since the only view we have into the lives of the women surrounding him is from his perspective, I thought it would be nice to give them a chance to tell their own stories.
But...I am not an unending fount of questions. So, if there are any questions you'd like to ask of my characters, let me know and I'll toss them into the mix. As long as they aren't too off the wall. No. You can't ask any of them for a date. But what about them would you really like to know?
Got to go. I'm expecting Kate in a few minutes.