At several minutes before 4 p.m. today, I managed to finish the first draft of Iron Man: Femme Fatales . The book is due to my editor, the esteemed Steve Saffel, on December 15, which gives me plenty of time to let it sit for a day or two and then read with fresh eyes.I was contracted for 85,000 words but the first draft, complete with some of the back matter, clocks in at 79,281 which puts me in the ballpark. When done, this is going to be my longest work of fiction to dateOverall, I’m satisfied with how it went and think there’s plenty of good stuff in here. I already know some character bits to tweak, some aspects of Iron Man’s power that could be showcased better so know there’s work to do And then there will be more rewriting once I get Steve’s notes during the holidays.DelRey has yet to give me anything more definitive than summer 2009 for a pub date and there seems to be no urgency yet for a cover although I’ve recommended images and artists.As usual, I am taking immense pride in meeting the deadline. I am also impressed I have managed this considering life’s distractions this fall. In fact, no sooner do I post this than I have to switch hats and attend a Board of Selectman meeting, thinking political not super-powered thoughts.
How you managed to write a 80,000 word novel while managing to crank out a gazillion posts for ComicMix every day along with everything else you do and have gone through this year thoroughly amazes and impresses me.I look forward to reading this when it’s released.
Glad to hear it. 🙂
Question that you may have answered in the past—my apologies if you have. But for those of us who’ve only seen the film, and not read any of the Iron Man comics, how familiar are we going to find it?
Or to boil it down to a binary question, since I realize that’s hard to quantify: Jarvis, man or AI? 🙂
Wow. Congratulations! I made the deadline on my manuscript by having my son drive me to the FedEx place while I had a 102 fever and pneumonia and where I ended up crumpling in a heap on the floor when they didn’t have a chair while they waited on the guy ahead of me. (But then, I was shipping 29 shawls and scarves along with the pages.) Talk about last minute. Twelve days early? Wow.I know how valuable a few days away from a manuscript can be for revisions and editings; I’m glad you’ve made yourself time for that.
Okay, that sounded pretty pathetic, forget I said that, ‘kay? Thanks.
Numfar! Do the dance of manuscript completion!
I didn’t know Steve was your editor! He’s one of the nicest people in the field I’ve met. We met at a World Fantasy years ago through one of his authors, Greg Keyes. Then, in Scotland in 2005, I ended up on a library panel at Worldcon with Steve’s wife.Congrats on another novel under your belt!