I just typed the last words of the climax! The last 15,000 words have been a blast to write. Heck, the whole thing has been fun.
If you look at the progress meter, you’ll see I’m at 83,384 words. It’s weird writing something this “short.” I figure I’ll end up around 90,000 words. I did some analysis of the size of some other thrillers. You can see it below. It’s not super rigorous, but BAD PENNY falls well within the range.
| AUTHOR |
AVERAGE WORDS |
BOOKS |
| Dean Koontz |
93,500 |
2 |
| Harlen Coben |
130,500 |
2 |
| JA Konrath |
77,667 |
3 |
| James Lee Burke |
153,000 |
1 |
| John Grisham |
148,000 |
1 |
| Ken Follett |
140,000 |
1 |
| Lee Child |
149,000 |
4 |
| Michael Connelly |
145,000 |
1 |
| Ridley Pearson |
114,000 |
1 |
| Robert Crais |
80,667 |
3 |
The average of all those books is 117,000.
So I have about two more chapters to go. I’d finish them next week, but we’re taking some vacation for the 4th. This means I expect to type “The End” in the second week of July. Then I’ll set it aside for a few weeks, revise it, and send it out to first readers, including my agent. Here are the characters:
- Frank Shaw – Ex-con trying to go straight
- Sam Cartwright – Friendly neighborhood Mormon who’s trying to make Frank feel welcome
- Dan Meese – A man with snakes in his soul, Frank’s former cellmate
- Tony Shaw – Frank’s nephew and hacker
- Carmen Escobar – The woman found tied up in the trunk of Dan’s car
- Pinto Correia – Bearded gun nut and Sam’s go-to guy
- Jesus Goroza – Zombie for a drug cartel & Dan’s employer
I really think folks are going to enjoy this one.
Huzzah !! It was a rousing book … had to keep reading until the exciting finish.
I’ll read it again when it is published. Great story!