Today I turned in the final, final draft for the second killer unicorn book, otherwise known in the many emails I get on the subject as the sequel to Rampant. (Why, hello, Google searchers. The book is coming out in September of 2010.) It was an ambitious and difficult project, because that is the nature of second novels in a fantasy series that feature characters who finish the first novel by coming into their awesome and extraordinary powers.
I thought it would be fun to share a few factoids about the process:
- Number of months spent drafting: 10
- Number of plotlines rejected during this process: 3
- Length: ~104,000 words
- Difference in length between first and final draft: +21,000 words
- Difference in length between what MS Word count is telling me and what OpenOffice is telling me (yeah, I’m a nerd): 3,000 words
- Pages in manuscript version of draft (Note: will be different than typeset book!): 341
- Body count, unicorn: lower than in first book
- Body count, human: higher than in first book
- Body count, other species: you don’t want to know
- Number of Chapters: 26 (plus a prologue)
- Species of unicorn: 5
- New species of unicorn: 1
- Number of trained, active unicorn hunters at the beginning of the book: 10
- Number of trained, active unicorn hunters at the end of the book: different from previous
- Countries used as settings: 3
- Number of Mediieval Nuns: 1
- Number of modern-day nuns: 1
- Number of people pretending to be nuns: 10
- Pretty frocks: 1
- Estimated number of whole pigs Bonegrinder devours over the course of the novel: 5
- Scenes with Bonegrinder in them: not enough. Ever.
- Threats I received regarding the possibility of Bonegrinder’s demise: 4
- Number of all-nighters I pulled while working on this book: 2
- Amount of this book I actually wrote while on the Team Castle writing retreat: 1 chapter
- Number of SweetTarts I ate while writing this book: 1 bajillion
And there you have it, folks. Manuscript #10.
What’s next?
November 6th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Wow! Sounds like you put a lot of work into it, and I bet it’s awesome because of it. You didn’t mention the karkadann…I actually loved him more than Bonegrinder!
November 6th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Number of requests for a Bonegrinder plush toy: 1
Loved Rampant and can hardly wait to read the sequel! September is soooooo far away! *L*
November 6th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Jen, you’re right, I didn’t mention the karkadann. Hmmmmm.
Alexia: Make that more like 100.
November 6th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
[...] Diana Peterfreund Blog | A Few Stats on Killer Unicorns, Book 2 http://www.dianapeterfreund.com/a-few-stats-on-killer-unicorns-book-2 – view page – cached Today I turned in the final, final draft for the second killer unicorn book, otherwise known in the many emails I get on the subject as the sequel to Rampant. [...]
November 6th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
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November 7th, 2009 at 2:15 am
Ooh yay! I’m very excited! =]
November 7th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
September of 2010 kinda makes me want to cry. I’m too exctied about the next one. I can’t wait.
November 11th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Yeah, I want more Bucephalus news, too.
How has Harper Teen not jumped onto this Bonegrinder plush toy yet? A KU2 special edition with Bonegrinder would sell so well! =)
December 11th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
I’m so excited!!! I finished reading rampant and was hoping for news of the sequel. I’m a total book geek and I really enjoyed Rampant because of its originality! I work at a bookstore and I recommend it to adults and teens alike! My inventory supervisor has put in a standing order because we sell so many. Keep up the great work!
December 11th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Wow, Amanda, thanks! Would you like some Rampant Bookmarks? Just email me your address and I’ll send some.