Drafting

Since installing the new power supply, the computer has worked flawlessly. It looks like that was the problem all along. Buying a new UPS would still be a good idea, but it'll wait.

I've been working on the YA book. I didn't get the rough draft finished last weekend the way I wanted to, but I did get it finished this week. I'm now going through it polishing it up and fixing things. It's set in the relatively near future a few years after the economic collapse and breakup of the U.S., though that's not the main focus. No, it's not a depressing dystopian novel. It's about a 16-year-old girl who, along with a few hundred other people, gets trapped in virtual reality and has to fight the forces of darkness to escape.

At this point, I hope there's nothing major to fix. One of the things I changed was the flying limousines. In the beginning of the book, the game world has flying limousines for high-level players, but somewhere along the way, all the driving ended up being on the ground. Did it still make sense to have them flying at the beginning, since it didn't really factor into anything later? Kind of yes but not enough to keep that in the book. The limos no longer fly.
Some of the more overt religious references are gone. The main character, Keelia, is a Christian, and that's central to the book. But I took out a few things that felt like they were slapping the reader in the face. Throughout the book, Keelia faces moral choices. I think it's better to show her faith through her actions, accompanied by an occasional reminder, rather than shoving it in the reader's face. People generally don't want to hear about your religion. They need to see it in action.
There are tons of little things to fix. I'm maybe a fifth of the way through.

The game Keelia gets stuck in is a spy game. On the side she also plays a mystery game, a fantasy game, etc. I was thinking of having two or three books in a series with each one being associated with a different genre of game. They wouldn't be books 1, 2 and 3. They would be stand-alone books that used the same characters. Then I thought that sounded boring. Keelia's not going to get trapped in the game in each book. That's dumb. However, the second book could be about her dad and the mystery game. I'd love to do a mystery novel. That could be it. Then, all of a sudden in the epilogue to the current book, the idea for another book in the series appeared out of nowhere. Now I have three ideas for three books. That just might work. And these are supposed to be young adult, so they're shorter and faster to do than a Messengers book.

But right now I need to focus on the B'vellah War books, right? Right. The plan is to finish up the polishing and fixing on the Keelia book then put it to the side for a month or so. During that time, I need to get some painting done along with working on Book 2 of the B'vellah War series.

For reasons of not being boring and other timing, book 2 starts a few years after book 1. The plan is to have a stand-alone, Calliope novella set between books 1 and 2. I'm kind of nervous about doing it that way, but nothing much happens in Yesh between 1 and 2. And somewhere I need to get the space era novel done. It's set during the time right after Kayley went into the future to save the miners and contains spoilers for the B'vellah War books. That would be easier to finish than another Keelia book.

That's about it this week. :)