I’ve been busy since early August working on the manuscript for Focus, the next book in the Vasily Korsokovach series. It’s an interesting story that has taken some unexpected twists and turns, some of which required me to rethink slightly how the final act would conclude. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that though I generally understand the major waypoints for my novels, until I wade in and start writing, I don’t always know how my characters are going to react. This seems to have been especially true in Focus, for Vasily wound up being more full of angst than I had anticipated — and the villain seems to be far more wily than either of us would have expected.
In short, so far it’s been 70,000+ words of surprise as I sail into the final section of the book; and, all things being equal, I should have it completed by the end of the month — perfectly on schedule (though it feels like anything but).
That’s not to say it hasn’t been fun — in fact, I’ve enjoyed the experience immensely — it’s just that I feel as though it’s going far slower than normal. Partly that’s due to how crazy busy my life is at this time of year; I typically don’t try to squeeze in writing an entire novel in the months leading up to NaNoWriMo, but the idea for Focus was compelling enough for me to throw caution to the wind and dive in. I may well pay for that decision, though, since I’m significantly behind in planning out the work that will be done as part of that annual event. (Honestly, though, isn’t it a writer’s dream to have a backlog of things to write? Talk about being in a happy place.)
By the way, you might have noticed that the date at the end of the title in my screenshot shows 2022; not to dash any hopes out there, but I usually tag each of my manuscripts with the year that I wrote them, not when I am planning on publishing them. As much as I would love to sneak out another Vas book this year, Sean already has the lock on the December release date, so you’ll have to wait until next summer for our Deputy Chief’s latest adventures.