Journey to a Story...Part 9...the story so far

It's been almost a year since I did any more in the journey to having my novel The Cistern out there for public consumption.  It started with Part One back in February 2013 which talked about where the idea for the story came from.  I like plucking things from life, so this can be a little spooky.  Part Two was about where the idea for the main characters came from and then Part Three was about their development and who's faces I stole.  No, this isn't a Silence of the Lambs thing.  Not entirely.  Part Four is about The Alcrest Gastropub where most of the story, hopefully the series, takes place.  Then Part Five is about some scene ideas and where they come from.  Part Six is introducing the characters, Part Seven is the prologue/chapter 1...After finishing writing the entire thing I decided on a new prologue so, it is chapter 1.  Finally Part Eight was about my idea for a short story to come before the novel and get everyone excited about it.  Haven't written it yet.

There were some other things indirectly attached to the journey.  Such as a short story written for an anthology of Young Adult Horror stories that depicts Chrys and Spencer at a younger age fighting evil. Then an interview with the muse for Chrys, actress Elizabeth Frances, and the drawings a friend did of both characters.

This brings us to here.  It's done!  I started writing The Cistern after finishing Red Serge and roughly

8 or 9 months later it is done.  Okay, it was done before that and then things got in the way of me doing a second run through and it was all way behind schedule, but the joy of being and indie writer is that the only one you have yelling at you is yourself.  Or fans of your writing - which is a good thing.

Now there are the steps to getting the book published.  It is out at some beta readers now, those are the people that go over it quickly and tell you if it's even worth sending it to editors and all that, then it will have to be edited.  I already have a cover designed, so long as it's going to work with printing, and since it takes place in a restaurant and food is important to everything there are going to be some recipes from the book in the back.

The problem with being done is that the characters are still in my head.  I have 6 or 7 ideas for future novels that involve humor, new kinds of bad guys, and even have links to real life crimes.  At the same time I have readers wanting the next Reid novel to find out what happens.  It's been a fun journey and it continues on.