Page proofs for DAMAGED GOODS, McMorrow No. 9, arrived in the mail yesterday. I handed in my package ticket at the Post Office counter and Priscilla the postmistress handed over the big fat envelope. Good times!
In the cycle of writing a book, this is one of several high points. Not quite as much of a kick as seeing the finished product but definitely a boost. All those words that you mulled, typed, deleted, rearranged, questioned, maybe even laughed aloud at—there they are in actual print. With your name on every other page. And the title. And page numbers and graphics. So all of that work is going to become a book after all.
Of course, then the work begins. Poring over each page, looking for typos, screwed up indentation, backwards quotation marks, repeated words. And then you start reading for content. Some pages flow smoothly, some phrases still make you smile. (Did I write that? That’s pretty good.) Reading other passages, you squint. Maybe frown. Did that chunk of dialogue go on too long? Is the rhythm off in that paragraph? Is that word sounding a little shop worn? At what point does proofing end and rewriting begin? Will my editor pull his hair out when he sees all these stickies? If I cut this graf, will it change the text flow?
This is the part of the process that readers don’t see, just like they don’t see the characters that are on the cutting floor, the plot twists that were too twisted, the black ending that was too dark, descriptions of woods and hills and ocean that were fun to write but didn’t belong in this book. Smoothing and shaping, mulling and discussing, cutting and adding: it all ends up in this stack of pages. As the old saying goes, a work of art (or mystery) isn’t finished, it’s just abandoned.
So the pages go back to Michael at Down East Books next week. Then I put McMorrow down and go back to Brandon Blake No. 2, in PORT CITY UNDERGROUND. That plot is still going ’round and ’round in my head, the characters emerging out of the swirling fog where these stories begin.
In PORT CITY SHAKEDOWN, the first Brandon Blake novel, Brandon gets a full dose of bad guys. A brawl in a funeral home introduces him to Joel Fuller, a sociopathic hustler. Fuller is fresh out of jail and determined to take Brandon out—after Fuller and his sidekick Kelvin shake him down.
Rocky isn’t a tough guy. He’s a skinny little kid with crooked glasses, and he shouldn’t be homeless in Portland, Maine. When McMorrow and Roxanne pluck him from under the stomping feet of a gang of street kids, Rocky latches onto McMorrow–and drags him into a world of murder, both old and new. Why is McMorrow protecting Rocky? The cops want to know. Why is Rocky on the run? McMorrow wants to know. Why does death follow in Rocky’s wake? Jack and Roxanne need to find out before they’re added to the list. 
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