Jan 2019 Update - The Black Sky, V2

At my personal blog at the end of 2018 I posted by year end review of goals and goal setting for the new year. I also included this bit about the book:

The Black Sky moved forward in a big way, but then took a step back. Here's the gist, as I don't want to go into too much detail: in January, one of my query letters landed me representation with an agent at a large NYC literary agency. This was a dream come true, I was on the proverbial cloud nine for days. We talked on the phone, went over the particulars, the time frames, the (realistic) expectations and such. Immediately the manuscript started going out to publishers and then... well, kinda nothing for months. That's how it goes, waiting to find the right home. I outlined the sequel, and waiting to hear something. Every couple of months, I'd check in and get a short but courteous "we're in the process, it takes time, be patient" response. By the end of the year, after I had a call with my agent and later learned about some issues at his agency, we ended up parting. To be fair, he sent out the manuscript to the folks I would ecstatic to get to read it, and provided me the feedback he received, but it was clear he wasn't going to be reach out to smaller publishers, so at this point I've taken The Black Sky back under my wing and am looking for another option in 2019. I'm also considering a revised title.

So that happened. What this doesn't include is that I got some extensive feedback on the book that gave me pause. This is my first novel, and I didn't pretend that the first draft was best. I sent it out to some friends at first, who gave me things to fix here and there, but it wasn't dramatic. I knew I was on the right path overall. But the new feedback I received made me realize there was a bigger task ahead - starting from the beginning, tearing it all down, building it back up.

I used to watch of number of auto restoration shows, and often they would pull a classic car into their shop, which was maybe in okay shape, but clearly needed some work, and just tear it apart. Why? Because the frame, the bones of car, were good, and upon that, the car could be made even better than initially appeared. The bones of The Black Sky are good - story, characters, theme, etc. - everything to build upon. But I made a few first-novel mistakes, and I aim to correct them.

That doesn't mean going in with a red pen and making a few changes, that means stripping it all apart and starting over, but with the bones in tact. We'll see how this goes, I had a 500 a word day minimum for the original writing excursion, and I'm hoping to revisit that daily goal.