Welcome to my Wild West!

December 10, 2023, Immediately after writing “THE END”, I slapped this on paper and left it for review before posting. It’s amazing how much a first draft can drain your word brain.

Just finished the first full-length western I’ve written in a while. Sure the ending might seem a little cheesy right now, but that’s what the second draft is for. 

When I wrote the last words, I realized what I was doing. Floater in the Lake was a joke compared to this story. Pretty sure I’ll be pulling that one and revising it extensively. Vella hasn’t been a good platform for me, and I’m not sure why.

As for Abiding (working title) I’ll be giving it a brief break before plunging into editing. Even though my memory isn’t what it used to be, I need some temporal distance between drafts in order to look at it with fresh eyes. Off-hand, I can think of a few things I need to do.

One scene needs a revamp for sure. All the characters need better development toward the beginning of the story since I didn’t really connect with several of them until the tail end. Some aspects of the character arcs need improvement as well.

Overall, I have plenty of material to work with. At 92,500 words, it needs paring down by almost 20k words. Much of that comes out at line editing. That’s a downside to word sprints. Things get wordy.

I’ll start tackling draft two toward the end of January. Then I’ll send it out for plot editing. Hopefully, by then I’ll have the cash for it, but in the meantime, I’ll be open for beta readers.

This is not a sweet story, by any means, and the romance element ended up much lower key than I’d originally planned, but that element didn’t fit well with what the characters needed. The story is gritty, with some foul language and cultural influences that may not be suitable for some audiences.

The story is about Millie Collingwood, an heiress who is homesteading with her partners Joe Wilkins and Pat, two former bounty hunters who befriended her when her own family abandoned her after a traumatic event in her life. 

They take in a drifter, Jace Riddock, who is hunted by a vengeful woman for killing her son. Their act of kindness becomes fodder for a neighboring rancher who wants their land and will do anything to get it.

It’s a story about overcoming trauma and learning to trust again. Sometimes the people you need to trust aren’t the ones you think you have to.

For now, this story will get shelved for a bit before I tackle editing. Stay tuned for updates.