On February 14th, I announced my plan to turn The Moreau Witches short story series into a novel, scheduled for publishing by the end of 2018. Just two weeks later, I announced that I had scrambled to the halfway mark.
Well, guess who has now completed the entire first draft of the witches’ daring tale of murder, feminism, and racism in 1800s England, France, and Haiti?
After 2 months of writing, I'm so happy to share that I finished the first draft of the #MoreauWitches! 😄
THANK YOU to everyone who cheered me on since October 2016 to turn my short story into a novel! We're almost there, guys!#turtlewriters #authorconfession #dolphinwriters pic.twitter.com/w4woLSe26T
— Alexis Chateau 🇯🇲 (@alexischateau_) April 9, 2018
The Editing
Fact-Checking
Naturally, the next step is to get started on the editing process. For another novel of this length, the first round of edits would have taken me about a week. However, with the many instances of fact-checking I will have to do for this period piece, I foresee the first round of edits may take me at least a month.
New Faces
For those of you familiar with the original story, there are some new characters introduced in the novel that I hope you will come to love as much as the strong Moreau matriarchs.
One of these include an assassin from the streets of London, whose face a man sees only before his death. Another new character of note is Esther, an alleged Jamaican Obeah-woman who proves that knowledge is a much stronger currency than gold.
Artwork for Book Cover + Merch
In the interim, I will not lay idle — however idle one can call oneself when editing a novel! I have already begun the design process for the book cover and merch, and enlisted the help of a talented illustrator I’ve been stalking on Instagram for some time.
I will reveal her identity once work is underway, so you can all be as excited as I already am! If all goes as planned, the book cover reveal should take place in the summer, if not before, and merch should follow soon thereafter.
Beta Readers & Book Reviewers
I am also building my list of reliable beta readers and book reviewers. By the end of spring, and possibly before, I should have a readable manuscript for my beta readers. Naturally, I can’t accept everyone, but if you are interested in beta reading or later reviewing this novel, please do reach out to me!
My family, friends, original fans of the witches, and regular readers and commenters of this blog will always get first preference, but don’t be shy to reach out, even if you’re just stumbling across my work for the first time. I am also especially interested in getting my hands on European and West Indian history buffs, and anthropologists. If that’s you, please contact me!
—
For on-going updates, check out the #MoreauWitches hash tag on Twitter, where I often tweet in real time, while working on the novel.
I got so much work done with the witches, while in the desert out west, and can’t wait to share that trip with you in upcoming posts. Stay tuned!
Alexis Chateau
Activist. Writer. Explorer.