Ghost Notes Audio Now at iTunes/New Novel Draft Finished

You can now buy the digital download of Ghost Notes the Audio Book at iTunes! There doesn't seem to be a way to link to the iTunes page, so go to your iTunes browser and search "ghost notes art edwards," and it will pop up!

And please listen to "Incident," download it for free, and pass it on to friends and family.

Yesterday, I finished a draft of my current novel-in-progress, which is called Good Night to the Rock 'n' Roll Era. The ending of this draft is both a good thing and kind of a bummer thing.

It's a good thing because I've spent the better part of the last eleven months working hard to make this novel as good as it can be, harder than I've ever worked on any novel. The novel is longer than anything I've written--420 pages, 92, 000 words--and I stand by my earlier claim that it's leaps and bounds better than anything I've written.

The bummer part is that it's not done yet.

I'm not going to lie and tell you that I'm overjoyed about this. A few of you may remember me earlier in the year proclaiming that I would be done with it in 2009. Sometimes I think I say these things just to make sure they don't happen.

So, why is the draft done but the novel not? What happened between the beginning of the year and now to make me doubt its perfection?

Since June, I've been blessed/cursed with a handful of beta readers who are doing a wonderful job finding flaws in the novel. They've brought up so many questions about it that I can't justify letting it out the door without a serious rewrite, rounding out characters, correcting few things, clarifying some others, and generally making it stronger than it is at this point.

I've come to realize that this is part of my process. One draft I stretch and expand the novel, adding elements, which I'll call my put-'er-in-'er draft. Then in the next draft I hone the prose, take out unnecessary elements, make the language as clear and as vibrant as it can be. This is the take-'er-out-'er draft. The lines blur all the time between these two disciplines, but I always know which draft I'm on. Yesterday, I finished a take-'er-out-'er draft, which is also when I allow myself to think, "Is it done?" With what I've gathered from the people who have read it, the answer is definitely no.

So I can foresee two more drafts, one where I put things in and another where I take things out, before I can (God willing) call it complete.

So, when will it be complete?

I'll guess and say this time next year, Thanksgiving-ish 2010.

I know, I know. Take it for what it's worth.

Back to the ol' grindstone.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Buy Ghost Notes, the novel or brand new audio book.



Buy Songs from Memory, the album


Buy Stuck Outside of Phoenix, the novel