At long last, I managed to finish the first draft today of A World on Fire: Rage. The entire book landed at 302 pages for a total of ninety six thousand words. That’s two pages longer than my target goal and four thousand words short of being a lethal weapon in some states.

The good news is that the page count is going to decrease hopefully by fifty pages with – believe it or not – another chapter being added. The bad news is that the hard work is just starting. I find rewriting to be an extremely painful process like having doctors operate on your pinky by going through a nostril.

As for the first draft itself, the first one hundred pages are in good shape. The last one hundred is a gibbering idiot. The middle one hundred is pure hit or miss, like tapdancing in minefields. In short, there’s A LOT of work to do. In a couple of weeks, I’ll be looking for some readers to kick the tires and also, I would love to consult some military minded folk about weapons and even general tactics. If there’s an active police officer out there, I’d love to pick your brain.

So what’s the plan for the immediate future? Believe it or not, the book is going on the shelf for a week or two or three to clear my head. In that time, I’ll be hacking on a short story. Permuted Press had a recent call for time travel stories and I have an old one that needs some rewriting.

Until then, fingers crossed. Hungry zombies coming your way. Sooner than later.