I managed to finish my Assassin revisions and read back through the manuscript this weekend. Huzzah!

I think the changes that were suggested have made the book much, much stronger. Now, I sort of know what I’m doing with it and where the story’s going. But more importantly, it feels more like a Jennifer Estep book now, even though it’s quite a bit darker than the Bigtime books.

Now, I just need to make my edits this week and send the whole thing off to my agent — and then I can start my next project. That one has a working title of Charm Queen. Think a Western with magic.

While I was going back through the Assassin book, I started thinking about Entertainment Weekly. In previous summers EW has had a summer movie body count, in which staff writers go through each summer movie and count the number of people who die. By the end of the summer, the total is in the thousands.

So I thought I’d do my own body count for the Assassin book. Gin (my main character) kills 16 people during the course of the book: 2 at an insane asylum, 2 at the orchestra, 1 at a restaurant, 3 at her friend’s apartment, 4 at the house of a police detective, 1 in a subdivision, and 3 at a rock quarry.

Whew! She’s a busy girl, my Gin. But that’s what happens when you get framed for murder and are on the run for your life. 😈

For those of you who are curious, the Assassin book has a working title of Gin on the Rocks. Now, I’ve got to start thinking about the sequel — and how to up the body count. Because sequels should always be better than the original book, don’t you think? 😎