20,000 words and climbing

Aarghh! I’m back at work today, and on a Friday to boot (first day for teachers). Hope it’s a good year ahead at Clounagh Junior High School. My cousin has a step-daughter who’s starting the school next week. I was talking to her and her friend Cherie last night about their new school and I learned that they’ve both read Ulterior. It’s always a nice surprise for me when I encounter people I didn’t know were readers. Both girls had read the book in one day flat. I am constantly amazed by how many people who’ve told me the same thing. (”Wanted to get the torture over quickly,” my friend Earl says.) This is the first year since Ulterior’s publication that I won’t be able to sell the book to the new kids; I just haven’t got enough copies left.

Crossed the 20,000-word barrier on The White Cage yesterday. The 40,000 words on the front of the website is an estimated total length. I’ve just shrunk that to 35,000. It’s just a feeling; I could be wrong. I’m uncomfortable publishing anything less than 40,000 words, so I’m giving more thought to compiling a short story collection with The White Cage as an included novelette - the way Stephen King’s Skeleton Crew is structured. Too early to decide yet.