Thanks to all the readers who continue to ask (or hint at asking) if book two is on track to begin posting at the end of April or early May.
As with so many things, the answer is "yes" and "no".
Let me explain....
I know the ending of the story and it is written in draft form. I thought book two would move through Paul and Jeryl's college years and beyond by carefully stepping through a fairly complete series of vignettes and scenes from their life together.
However, the characters seem to have developed minds of their own, and added many more scenes to their story. They get themselves into situations that require a lot more narrative and dialog to resolve than I originally estimated.
I'm currently at 120,000 words and it feels like I'm only half-way to the ending I had planned.
Philosophically, I promised myself I would only begin posting a story when it was completely written so I would not aggravate my readers or run the risk of having a story lapse into "incomplete and inactive" status. The next seven chapters form a complete story arc, but are not the end of the story. Those chapters have been edited and proofed and are ready to begin posting while the next five chapters are still in a rawer form. At the least, I have 6 to 8 more chapters to go.
So, I am trying to decide if it makes sense to post chapters 20 through 27 (80,000 words), call it book two, and then figure out the completion timeline for book 3.
The downside of this approach is that I've recently begun a new job that could easily delay the completion of the overall story significantly (September), if I don't have the goad of my promise to finish the story this spring, which is technically June 21st. Since starting the new gig, I'm only able to get 5,000 to 7,000 words a week written. At this pace, if the entire story of book 2 as originally planned is going to be 200,000 words, I will need nearly three months to complete (July).
.
So, in summary, can you let me know if you would rather:
A) Be able to read the next 80,000 words with an as yet undetermined publishing schedule on the remainder of the story, or
B) See some slippage in the start of posting (May at the earliest, mid-June likely), but have a complete story once I resume posting.
I suspect I know what the response will be, but dislike making assumptions when it is so easy to ask all you good readers for your input.
Thanks for reading, and please let me know your opinions.
-Charlie