Last week, I took my first at-home writing retreat of 2024, which I will pick back up on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday when it's my turn for a three day weekend (I worked Memorial Day).
The book I'm currently writing is called "House on Top of the Hill." It's the third book in the BryonySeries Limbo trilogy and the trilogy's tagline is this: What happens when time stops in a fishing village in Northern Michigan? The supernatural reigns.
The entire book was loosely drafted when I began my retreat and ready for editing through chapter eight. So my goals for this retreat was to complete one chapter a day with the larger of goal of having the book ready for final editing by the end of summer.
Some of these chapters from the retreat will need heavy editing. But others are nearly ready to go. Overall, I wrote approximately 2,500 to 3,000 words a day on the retreat, in addition to re-reading some of that work and getting some good editing done on those words.
Read this post to see what these retreats typically look like. You will see why I am always happy to return to work.
Below is a synopsis, chapter titles, and cover concept. The chapters in italics are the ones ready for editing. I made it through chapter sixteen on the retreat and plan to get through chapter nineteen (chapter twenty if the last three days go better than I planned).
Wish me luck for this long weekend!
Change comes slowly to Munsonville, and for Steve Barnes, who spends his entire life in the village, that's just fine. From boyhood to manhood, he savors the slow pace and friendly smiles, even while working by his parents' side from sunup to sundown to run the family diner.
The only blight is this fishing village's preoccupation with an empty mansion in the woods, whose tales of former glory and catastrophe fueled a rampage of ghost stories. Steve doesn't believe them, but some do – and no no one can deny the power the crumbling old building holds over them.
Especially when it changes everyone, including Steve, forever.
Prologue
Chapter 1: The Traveling Salesman
Chapter 2: Roundtable
Chapter 3: Bottle of the Red Stuff
Chapter 4: Cracking Open the Nest Egg
Chapter 5: Scrawls on the Wall
Chapter 6: Whispers of the Heart
Chapter 7: I Run at Night
Chapter 8: Laid to Rest:
Chapter 9: Necking
Chapter 10: Spider and Fly
Chapter 11: Death Heard Round the World
Chapter 12: Mine
Chapter 13: Second Sight
Chapter 14: Chop, Sizzle, Broil, and Bake for it and some against it.
Chapter 15: The Rage
Chapter 16: Hard Choice to Make
Chapter 17: Through the Camera’s Eye
Chapter 18: Words Enough For Me
Chapter 19: The All-Hallowed Albatross
Chapter 20: Dancing in the Past
Chapter 21: The New Professor
Chapter 22: Enigma in Residence
Chapter 23: Rain
Chapter 24: From Fry Pan to Factotum
Chapter 25: Nutty Tina Swanson and Kellen
Chapter 26: Preternatural Guest
Chapter 27: The News That Changed Everything
Chapter 28: A New Lease on a Very Old Dream
Chapter 29: Journey of a Thousand Heartaches
Chapter 30: Severed Links
Epilogue
Cover art concept for "House on Top of the Hill " created by Timothy Baran
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