The Queen in Yellow Progress Report

This won’t come as a surprise, but I had hoped to finish The Queen in Yellow last month, and that didn’t happen. I finished a draft, but now I’m going back through the whole thing again, trying to cut as much as possible without hitting a main artery.

110,000 words is just too long. A horror novel should be easier to pitch if it’s under 100k. I’m aiming for 90K, but we’ll see how this pass goes.

After all the cuts, I’ll need to do yet another pass, making sure everything flows and that my cuts (and minor additions) are an actual improvement.

I see all this taking at least another month, but I’m not letting this hold me back from researching agents and indie horror publishers. My goal is to write a few generic query letters this month and send out targeted versions well before my birthday in June.