Housesitting: finished... a first draft

About 6:30 this evening in a Starbucks, drinking a terrible 'skinny' Vanilla Latte, I finished the first draft of Housesitting.

I guess I finished a novel.

Here's how the final word count looked:

Green for go

As you can tell, I slipped a bit past my more extravagant projections. However, I don't think for a minute this is the actual word count of the final book. Next up is rewriting and editing. While I've rewritten bits and pieces of the book while I've gone along (and in a few places, huge swathes) the next time will be the first time I can look at the whole thing, as one piece, and edit with the entire plot in place.

The ending was tough. Not just because endings are tough ("What, I have to finish now? But they're talking! Can't I just let them talk?") but because it veered left and right, and I really wasn't sure how it was going to go. I'll admit it could have been shorter. Hell, it might end up being cut to ribbons. We'll see.

So what's next? Well, I'd expect editing and rewriting to take a couple of weeks at least. When I'm done with that, I'll probably be sharing it with a few people who I trust. And then... we dip into the crazy world of electronic publishing for the first time. And you'll be able to buy a copy.

Between now and then, as and when I find bits of the book I feel comfortable sharing, I'll probably throw them up here. So stay tuned. Questions are welcome obviously... oh and while I have you...

... can anyone think of a better title?

Oh and by the way! Only two days after deadline, how about that? Given the week I've had, I honestly think that's very little short of miraculous....