I had written the first eight chapters in January of 2019, it was like a New Year's resolution for me, and they just came out quick. The story had been in my head since I was teen in the late 90's and I'd told myself 2019 was going to be the year I finally write it. And I did.
Before writing, I'd had all of the chapters outlined, all but one and that was chapter 9. I knew I'd wanted the story to be 11 chapters long (So I had to come up with a chapter 9!), as 11 represents the letter K, the eleventh letter, which holds secret meaning to the story, but once I got to chapter nine I was stuck. Chapter nine was a mystery to me and it would be months before I got back to it.
March of 2019 came around and I was still stuck. My future wife and I were just getting serious right about that time, and I told her about the book I was writing, how it was a fictional tale, about a conspiracy with the murder of a doctor who had discovered the cure for cancer. I had also told her a secret about the story, how though it was fictional, it was secretly about a historical event that had taken place during our childhood. (A concept I stole from Orwell) She got really excited and thought it was a really cool idea. She demanded that I finish it by her birthday as a present, so she could read it. Her birthday was only a week away though! "Are you saying you can't?" She had challenged me which lit a fire and had motivated me. I was deeply in love and wanted to make it happen. After that chapter 9 came to me and I wrote the last three chapters in 5 days, giving myself 2 days to spare before her birthday.
The amazing thing is that chapter nine (The Mystery) ended up being my favorite chapter of the story. It was my favorite to write, and I can't imagine it without it now. It felt so complete, and stamped with a piece of my soul, I absolutely loved it, and I'm very critical of the other chapters and my other stuff, as I'm always rewriting and calling them crap! The only part of the story I like more is the first paragraph of the last chapter, (Chapter 11) but only the first paragraph, which is my favorite thing that I've ever written.
Chapter nine is mostly edited now, and will be published this Saturday. I'm getting excited to have a full manuscript out there. I hope to have it completely polished by February so I can start the brutal process of shopping it. Hope you all enjoy, and thank you with all the help with weeding out all the errors. That has been tremendous, something I couldn't have done on my own, so a big thank you to all that have read it, and helped me out along the way.
