inverarity | It's No Joke! Coming April 1: Alexandra Quick and the Wizard War (Reply)

Alexandra Quick and the Wizard War has had the strangest and in some ways most difficult creation process of all my books. It took me about three years to finish the first draft, more or less. Much longer than I intended (I actually believed I was almost done at the one and two year marks), but not nearly as long as it took me to finally get Alexandra Quick and the World Away out into the world.

My "semi-final" draft was done a year ago, and I hoped to begin posting in a couple of months.

The beta-reading process was rougher this time. I had four beta-readers, all of whom have been reading my stories for a long time. Half liked AQATWW and half did not. Those who didn't more or less agreed on what they didn't like about it, but had radically different ideas about how it should be "fixed."

"Advice" from a beta-reader

I ended up keeping the story mostly unchanged. In fact, I probably made fewer changes as a result of beta-reader feedback than in any previous AQ book.

Alexandra on a ship

I definitely did do a lot of rewriting, including incorporating specific feedback and suggestions. I "fixed" a lot of things, large and small. A few plot points were removed, and a few more were added. But I didn't do the "big" things like removing an entire arc or changing a major character's role in the story or rewriting entire chapters to turn out differently. Alexandra Quick and the Wizard War is the story I planned long ago. It's not perfect (none of my books are perfect and I'm never completely satisfied with them) but I like it. If it's flawed and self-indulgent, that is entirely on me. I think some of you will like it too. And I think some of you won't. That's okay.

Spooky woods

The final draft is more or less done. I'm still making a few changes and there will be another final round of polishing, and it's never completely done until I actually upload it. But the story is what it is now. 373,094 words and 66 chapters.

Duel in the desert

I'm going to be once more posting chapters on a biweekly schedule, Mondays and Fridays. I'm starting in April, which means the first chapter will go up on April 1. Yes, seriously. No, it's not going to be a "joke" chapter or a prank. (I actually kind of hate April Fool's Day.)

Trailer Park

So yes, that means it will take 33 weeks. If I'm figuring it right, you'll get to read the final chapter right around Election Day in the US. Won't that be awesome? Fun times, fun times...

Alexandra in a suit