A long time ago I read the introduction to a Dean Koontz collection called Strange Highways. In that introduction, he mentioned his editor sending back a draft of an unnamed novel-in-progress with instructions to increase the word count. My memory is fuzzy (I was a teenager at the time), but I recall the request called for an additional 100k words or so. The whole thing was written tongue-in-cheek, which won’t strike anyone as odd if they’re familiar with Dean’s quirky sense of humor, and forever impressed upon me the correlation between large books and doorstops.
So, every time I think of “appropriate novel length,” I think of writing a doorstop. A massive brick of paper strong enough to hold open a door.
When I printed THE LIMINAL MAN, I didn’t really think about its size. The first draft is single-spaced, after all. Last night, while taking these photos of the first draft (complete with Erica’s tabs and notes), I realized that when I finally double-space it to send off to the most amazing editor on the planet, it’s not only going to cost me an arm and a leg in shipping, but it will also take a full ream of paper.
I’d like to think that, in some way, I’ve made Dean Koontz proud.
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In other news, the Kickstarter project for ALT 2.0 is now over 80%. We’ve got a little over 3 weeks left to go, so if you’re thinking about pledging, now is the time. Who knows? There may even be some incentive for you to help put us over the 100% mark (not-so-subtle hint). Watch this space in the coming days.
TK
