Fractal Peace: Third Draft Underway

Just time for a brief update before my son wakes up, now he's here for Christmas. Well, maybe I've got longer; who can tell?

I've received detailed feedback from him on the first of the two Fractal Space novels, Fractal Peace. It was exactly what I needed, telling me the parts that were unclear and where the character arcs were unconvincing. Luckily, they're all relatively easy to fix, and I've largely worked out what needs doing.

Some are simply wording changes, a few can be best fixed by additional dialogue, and there's scope for a couple of new scenes. One was more interesting, where I could improve it just by moving bits around,

I've already started on these changes – about a third of the way through – and it's already expanded the novel to around 82,000 words. I'll continue with the fixes after Christmas,

I should also get feedback on the second book, Fractal War, sometime early in the New Year, which might need extra fixes to Fractal Peace to accommodate. We'll see. That should keep me busy early in 2024.

I'm not fully convinced whether I'll submit this novel to a literary agent. Given its structure and that it's actually two novels, it's likely to be a hard sell, but it's also my best writing (IMHO). I'll see what surge of optimism the New Year brings.

I've not made much progress on the third novel, Fractal Legacy, as I had other things to do and then decided to wait to finish the first two. Looking forward to starting on that properly.

I've had one delightful distraction in the last week – a badger exploring the garden every night, which I caught on the camera I use to see if my cats are hiding from the rain behind the shed (if so, I can open the door to call them in, and they make a mad dash across the garden into the dry).

It even visited one evening while I was still awake (rather than the usual time of around 2 a.m.), so I got to see it with my own eyes. It got one of my cats excited!

I hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year. I'll be back with more tales of wildlife, or more likely, my books, in 2024.