DARK COVEN - revisited

Three or four years ago I wrote a book called DARK COVEN. It's about three witches that cause a whole hell of a lot of carnage and damage to a small town. 


Upon finishing the first draft I knew there was a f*#k ton of work to be done on it. For one, it came in at over 96,000 words. At the time, Leisure Books (pretty much the only mass market game in town for horror back then) wasn't accepting manuscripts above 80,000 words, if I'm not mistaken. So there was that. 


Plus, there are a couple of subplots that have no business in the book.


Sounds like I knew exactly what had to be done. 


Not a chance.


The problem was, as soon as I started messing with it, the damn thing just fell apart. It was like pulling bottom cards out of a house of cards. It all came tumbling down.


I tried for a few weeks to edit it and make appropriate cuts but soon became very discouraged. Here I had spent five or six months pounding out this book and I didn't know what to do with the darn thing.  


Last night I decided to print it out and take another stab at it. I'm going to take my time, as there is no rush. I think enough time has passed that I can look at it with a fresh perspective (I can hardly recall much of it, to be honest).


I'll keep you posted as I go along, let you know if it defeats me a second time (which it very well might).


In the mean time I've been working on another project the last two months based around my story that was published over on the SHOTGUN HONEY website (Last Request). 


I'm about 20,000 words in. It's tentatively called THE TALES OF HITCHCOCK AND LOU-ELLEN. There are basically three novellas involved and a fourth that ties the others together. The first is called MURDER ISLAND. The second is called THE SCHOOL. The whole thing is influenced by The Most Dangerous Game and Battle Royale: The Novel, as well as the Harry Potter series (only it's not what you're thinking), not to mention the plethora of crime writers I've been reading of late.  


I'll keep you posted on its progress, also.