Gordon pedaled as fast as he could, intensely focused on taking deep breaths. Each inhalation set off a dull pain deep in his chest, but he persisted, stubbornly ignoring his rapidly increasing heart rate. Baum would fuss that he was exerting himself too much, but Gordon didn’t care. He had to get into shape somehow, and riding his bike to work was the best way he could think to do it…

I promised an Implant update, didn’t I? I do believe I did. As I mentioned in my introduction of the book, I’ve been working on going through a printed version of the novel and marking it up with red pencils and purple post-it-notes, helping myself get a full picture of what’s wrong with it, how it needs to change, and what practical steps I can take in my rewrite to implement those changes.

So the good news? Last weekend, I finished this marking process and am ready to move onto the next stage — the full rewrite! Yay!

The bad news? Every page is full of red x’s, lines, circles, and notes that say “too much telling,” “too cheesy,” “too confusing,” “show more,” “give details,” “logistically confusing,” etc., etc., etc. Not to mention the big chunks of exposition that I skipped never went back to write. And the one very deus ex machina bit involving a pathetic and rousing speech by a small child who appears nowhere else in the story.

i.e., This story needs a lot of work.

The other good news is that going through it all gave me a huge reminder of why I love this story, and I’m actually excited to get going on revision 1.2. In fact, as soon as I get this post up, I’m going to open up a new Works document (yes, I’m one of those who refuses to leave the caveman era of word processors and still clings to Microsoft Works like a toddler to a favorite toy) and get going.

In the meantime, I need your help. I want to pick one of the main characters to introduce you to, but I can’t choose which. So I’ll give you three names, and you tell me which one you are most interested in learning a bit about. Ready?

The choices are:

– Gordon Harding
– Doc
– Neil Crater

Tell me your choice in the comments!