The Killing Zone

With the professional edits of 'Montana Harvest' and 'Mystery at Little Bitterroot' completed and both novels ready for publishing, I will begin completing the suggested professional edit on 'The Killing Zone.' This novel, the third in the series, currently stands at 104,180 words encompassing 400 pages. Again, like the first two novels, the size of this novel will be whittled down to a manageable level without sacrificing plot or style. What will go will be scenes, dialogue, and prose that either does nothing for the story, slows the action down, or is redundant. The professional edit will result in a tighter and more dramatic novel.

Mystery at Little Bitterroot

I have completed making the professional edit changes to 'Mystery at Little Bitterroot'. This novel topped out at 73,882 words and 301 pages.

Here is a recap of the statistics for the fully completed novels in the Jim Buchanan Series:

Montana Harvest - 58,558 words, 247 pages

Mystery at Little Bitterroot - 73,882 words, 301 pages

I will now prepare Mystery at Little Bitterroot for presentation at the Unicorn Writers Conference in April and will bring along manuscripts for both novels.

Now I will work on final edits for my two short stories for my writing group's book project. Once that is completed in early April, I will begin work on the editoral changes for 'The Killing Zone.'

Mystery at Little Bitterroot

My editing progress on 'Mystery at Little Bitterroot' has resulted in reductions of total word count to 76,535 and total page count to 311. I have approximately 47 remaining pages to edit. I should have this novel completed and ready for publishing by the end of this week.

Editing progress on 'Mystery at Little Bitterroot'

I've completed the editorial suggestions on 162 pages of 'Mystery at Little Bitterroot.' This weekend I will make an extra effort to complete the remaining suggested corrections. The total pages of this novel currently stand at 331 and the word count is 83,449. Expect these totals to decrease as I near the finished product.

Mystery at Little Bitterroot

I've begun making my editor's suggested changes to 'Mystery at Little Bitterroot'. I'm on page 95 of 342 pages. The total number of pages will shrink as I go forward with the edit as will the word count. It was originally over 92,000 words but now stands at 87,299. My aim is to finish this edit by the end of this month so that I can bring two completed manuscripts to the Unicorn Writers Conference in April.

Mystery at Little Bitterroot

Today I will begin the process of making my editor's suggested changes to my manuscript of 'Mystery at Little Bitterroot'.

Final Edit Completed

I've finished making the changes to 'Montana Harvest' as suggested by my editor. The novel topped out at 58,559 words covering 248 pages. I've submitted the first 48 pages to the Unicorn Writers Conference for a one-to-one session with an agent. I will also begin the process of mailing query letters to agents.

Progress on 'Montana Harvest'

I've completed my editor's suggested corrections on 187 of the 259 submitted pages of my final edit for 'Montana Harvest'. I plan to finish the remainder today and then will submit the first 40 pages by Saturday to the Unicorn Writers Conference for review by an agent. This writers conference is in April and if it proves not to be fruitful then I will send query letters to other agents. One way or another this first novel will be published this year and available for purchase.

New Short Story

I've completed a new short story for the book project with my writing group. The title of the story is 'In My Life' and it is a story of lost love with a Beatles twist. I still need to complete a final edit on this story as well as the prior story that I have written.

Copyrighted Novels

I've registered 'Montana Harvest', 'Mystery at Little Bitterroot', and 'The Killing Zone' with the US Copyright Office. It was an easy process and for you fledgling authors out there it only costs $35 per novel.