Update and Other Stuff

First off, for those of you who've seen the news and know I live in Colorado, never fear. The tornadoes weren't here. Way west of here, actually. My heart goes out to everyone in Windsor. From the scuttlebutt I heard this morning (from someone who knows someone in Windsor), the city did away with their tornado sirens a couple years back, supposedly because they thought they didn't need them. While it's rare for those nasty suckers to hit more metropolitan areas, it does happen, and the sirens while not necessary 100% of the time, are absolutely necessary that small percentage. It only takes one tornado to wipe out a town. They're very lucky no one got killed. (I've haven't seen the news today, so if they found someone after last night, I'm very sorry to be wrong.) One person was killed west of Greeley, unfortunately. RVs are not the best place to hide from a tornado.

Now, with that out of the way, it occurs to me I don't really have anything else to update. If you've been reading along, you know I'm nearing the end of the first draft of Manhunter. I just have the climax and the denouement to write. I'm guessing the first draft will end up around 65-70K words, with the final product hitting 80-85K. I need to develop the characters better, and work on the romance between the MCs. I also need to address the two minor characters who could possibly end up with their own books and weave in a little more backstory to make the MCs more sympathetic. (Last night, I hit on the main thing driving the heroine, and now I need to lay a trail back through the rest of the book. I'm still working on what drives the hero, but I have a fair idea.)

Querying is going right along. Some partial requests, some rejections, some still hanging out there. It's all a waiting game. I played with the idea of reworking my query letter, but after re-reading it this morning, I still think it says what I want it to say, in the fewest words possible. Of course, the urge is always there to tweak things, but I've learned the more I give in to that urge, the more I obsess and end up changing things for the worse. So, I'll just leave it alone for now.

Like I said, if not this book, then the next one. I'll just keep writing them and submitting them until something breaks. (All the while hoping it's not me.) The other night my husband asked me: "So how many books is this now?" I said, "Six, if you count the one I never edited." He gave a good-natured little laugh. I don't remember the exact phrasing of his next question, but it was something along the lines of 'how many are you going to write?'

My answer is always: "As many as it takes."

So. What's going on in your world? Any good news to report?