LKF #6 - Long Book

Little Known Fact #6 - Long Book

At 160,000 words (504 pages), ERIS (Eternal Truths, Book 1) is not a short book by any stretch of the imagination. I did not originally set out to make it that long. It just happened.

When I finished writing, I tried to find a way to cut the book back. I couldn't find any one scene that was expendable. I would either be cutting the romance or the plot. Either way, the book would suffer.

When I submitted ERIS to Siren Publishing, the book was 150,000 words. 10,000 words were added during the editing sessions to flesh out certain scenes such as the one below.

EXCERPT:

“What the hell is this?”

Eris gasped and spun around, confronting Pete. He’d followed her to the fourth room. She had been so caught up in her own triumph at getting the notes from Mr. Sebastion without too much fuss that she hadn’t even noticed him.

Pete walked passed her into the survey room. He looked around then back at her. “Answer me, Eris. What’s going on?”

“It’s another survey room.”

“Oh yeah? For who?” He gestured behind him. “There’s only one desk and one chair and, unless I’m mistaken, that’s your laptop case. What are you doing?”

She stared at him with wide eyes.

“I came back last night because I forgot my MP3 player. When I saw your car, I got pissed since I thought you might be doing something with Ranulf or Lucien after I warned you not to.”

“Pete—”

“After seeing this, I only wish you were. Tell me you aren’t pulling overtime just so we finish this project by the eighteen month mark.”

“No. This…” She looked around at the room.

No matter what she said, Pete would be angry. She sighed.

A sense of inevitability closed around her. She walked the notebooks to her workstation and set them down before she faced Pete.

“Well?” He crossed his arms and gave her his best disapproving father look.

“These are all the comics Clayton’s team graded. They’re all wrong.”

Pete dropped his arms and looked around again. “What do you mean they’re all wrong?”

She put her hand on the stack of notebooks. “For one thing they are missing Mr. Sebastion’s grade notes.”

“Mr. Sebastion? What the hell is he doing here? He’s on Clayton’s team now?”

“He and Susie had a falling out a few weeks before this project started. Brian swapped him for one of Clayton’s graders to keep the peace.”

“More like to keep Mr. Sebastion from shoving his cane up Brian’s ass.”

Eris agreed silently.

“Okay, that doesn’t explain why you’re the only one in this room.”

As quickly and precisely as she could, Eris explained the situation from the moment Ranulf brought her attention to it until the point Pete followed her.

Pete clenched his hands at his side. “I don’t know who I want to kill first—Brian or Clayton.” He faced the doorway.

Eris grabbed his arm and pulled. “No, Pete. Don’t. It’s not worth it.”

“The hell it isn’t!” He yanked his arm away from her and then faced her, his eyes blazing with his anger. “Why they hell did you lie to them, Eris? This is bullshit. You don’t fix other people’s problems. You make them do it. What the hell type of team leader are you?”

Eris stared at him in shock. He hadn’t yelled at her like that since she was in high school.

“I can’t believe you didn’t open up your mouth and tell someone. Anyone. Me! Why the hell didn’t you at least tell me?”

“Pete, stop,” Lucien said in a cold voice.

Eris almost hit the floor.

Lucien and Ranulf stood in the survey room doorway. Neither man looked very pleased.

How many people had followed her? Was anyone else waiting to yell at her?

It didn’t matter. All of her precautions had met with ruin. She sank back against the desk with her head in her hands.

Pete put himself before Eris, guarding her. “This isn’t her fault.”

Ranulf said, “So we heard.”

Eris wanted to cry at the disappointment she heard in his voice. She’d betrayed a trust. And, after she had promised herself that she would repay them for all the kindness Ranulf and Lucien had shown her.

Ranulf stepped out of the doorway. “Pete, walk with me.”

Pete didn’t budge.

Lucien walked forward, stopping one stride before Pete. “Leave.”

There was a wealth of danger in that one word. It made Eris’s skin crawl. She’d never heard Lucien sound so angry before. She actually witnessed Pete slinking out of Lucien’s way. Pete never backed down from a fight.