Hallelujah!

Considering that we’re in the Easter season, the title of this post seems particularly apropos. In addition, a few days ago I finally wrote The End to the draft of Valley of the Shadow. Talk about excitement! I truly felt like breaking out into the “Hallelujah Chorus”! With all the unexpected twists and turns this installment of the series took me on, and all the resulting recalculations I had to make, I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to finally get it done. 

Just figuring out where to break the realigned storyline to create a logical ending was an ordeal. The word count was already higher than I wanted by the time I got to the end of December 1777, blowing away my original plan to end right after Monmouth at the end of June 1778 with a temporarily—the operative word here being temporarily—peaceful conclusion for my characters. But I managed to bring it to what feels like a nicely suspenseful ending—albeit another cliffhanger, which I was hoping not to do after the last one!—late in February 1778 without getting to Daughter of Liberty’s final word count of 127,000+, which admittedly is ridiculous!

Now it’s time to slash words. There are places where the narrative gets down into the weeds, and I’m going to try to condense, streamline, and extract details that don’t really have to be there. But first I’m taking a break for a couple of weeks. I want to be able to come back to the story relatively fresh, with a more objective perspective. And I have several friends—God bless you!—reading through it as well to give me their feedback, which will enter into the final edit. 

After I have final text I’ll flow it into my page-making software, QuarkXPress, Marisa will add the back and spine to the front cover, and we’ll be ready to go to print. And, of course, my friend John McClure will turn it into the ebook files asap. Before that’s all finished, however, I’ll already be working on research for book 2 of the Northkill Amish Series, The Return. And then back to book 6 of this series, Refiner’s Fire. I’ll tell ya, an author’s work is never done!

By the way, Valley of the Shadow is now available for preorder! For some reason Amazon doesn’t have it discounted, but Christianbook.com has a very nice price. Check it out!

Back to Valley of the Shadow!

Chart of New York Harbor

It’s been way too long since I last posted on this blog. So much for good intentions! But now that the final edit of Northkill is off my desk and to the printer, I’m focusing again on book 5 of this series. Elizabeth and Carleton have been in limbo way too long, and they’re letting me know about it. If you’re not a fiction writer, I’m sure it’s hard to understand how fictional characters can take over your life and stir up trouble, but they do!

While I’ve been occupied finishing Northkill, I’ve also been accumulating lots of notes for exciting scenes in Valley, and my first task is to transcribe all of those into the working copy. The entire first part of the book will cover Elizabeth’s rescue, including a dangerous gamble by Dr. Pieter Vander Groot, and I mean to make it as breathtakingly thrilling and wrenching as possible.

There’s much more involved in this installment of the story, however. My plan is to cover the Continental Army’s trials at Valley Forge, critical trips back to Grey Cloud’s Town for both Andrews and Carleton, and the summer campaign of 1778, which includes the major battle at Monmouth Court House.

This volume will end with a bittersweet redirection of Elizabeth and Carleton’s immediate future that will inaugurate the battles on the high seas. Plenty more action, adventure, intrigue, and romance is in store for the cast of the American Patriot Series. Be sure to stay tuned for regular updates!