Making Progress

(Deathlayer, one of the Just Us Chickens)

I'm racing the end of the summer to at least get my first set of books drafted.  My teenage boy has now drafted his part of the bonus books, the first three of his zany super chicken series, Just Us Chickens, his backstory for his Supermanish chicken, Impeckable, and the first of his other series, Keylime Python, the swashbuckling snake.  He's now just taking some time off and enjoying summer vacation.  I'm almost done with illustrating the Just Us Chickens trilogy.

[Illustrations from Doomimals: Book 1]

Meanwhile, I am wrapping up book 7 of my 9-book set.  I'll then write a back story to a major character.  I'm shooting to have it all drafted by mid-August.  I'm a little behind but am still hoping to catch up and finish on time. I've finished a draft in a few days before.  I can do it again, especially now some of my other obligations are done for the moment. 

Most excitingly, book one's illustrations are now complete.  Huzzah!  Thanks again, Gostelle. 

Of course, now we get to the hard part: revising to the point where readers will enjoy reading them.  I always seem to stall there.  I have an editor's review of book one, which I hope will be useful on the others.  I have friends reading a couple of them and finding major issues on which I need to work.  But I need a way to have outside eyes go over the rest.  I'm working on formulating a plan for that.  Oh, and the rest need illustrations, too.  So, on one hand, it feels like I'm getting close.  But if I really think about it, the hardest parts are yet to come.