Alright, I’m done with Victoria 2.2. For now. I wanted to give it one more pass, because I’m sure it’s riddled with grammar and spelling problems. I’m also sure that there’s plenty of stuff I’d like to change and probably will before I publish, but I’ve been looking at this story for far too long, and I need a break from it.

So I’ve sent it off to a couple of very generous beta readers who have offered to take a look at it and do some editing for me. Then I’ll give it my own last pass and put it online.

For now, I just need a break from that story. I’m going to take the next week or so and go through clean up some flaws in the previously published stories. I’ve been sitting on some outside editing for a while (thanks David!) that I need to put into action now that I’m finally done writing Victoria 2.2. So that’s what I’m going to do next. Since I’ve culled all of my distribution down to just Amazon, it will be fairly easy to edit and re-upload everything and know that it’s all covered.

This story has definitely been the most challenging so far, not only because it’s in such a drastically different setting, but because it brings a lot of new elements into the series, and that’s intimidating as hell. New characters, new ideas, new insight into old characters. This one is a pivotal volume in the series, and as I was writing it, I could feel the weight of that responsibility. It’s not that I didn’t want to do it, or that I was afraid of writing it… just that I wanted it to make sure it was accomplishing the things I needed it to accomplish, and it took a while for me to get it where I needed it to be. As frustrating as this long wait has been for me, I’m glad to have had it, because it took that long to figure out exactly how to approach some of these issues.

Now that it’s done, I’m looking forward to moving on. I haven’t decided 100% what I’m going to write next. I’ve got a Charlie/Caroline story in the bank that’s mostly done. I’m strongly considering writing Jack 4.2 next, because I’ve got some interesting ideas on where to go with him, and because I’ve just got the one full on Jack story so far. Numbers wise, he’s due.

I’ve also got another non-Bloodletting story that I need to rewrite for new short story collection that’s looking for submissions. The collection is horror stories based on songs, and I’ve got one that I wrote years ago that I think would suit that theme well.

So that’s where I’m at. Hopefully, Victoria 2.2 will be ready to go in a week or so, depending on how long this last edit takes. Thanks for hanging in there with me!