Update on my 10th novel: The Marionette
Writing life: 77
It’s been five long months since my last update on the status of my tenth novel, The Marionette, and much has happened. With the novel due in bookstores on October 14, 2025, it’s time to bring you up to speed.
So, where are we in the publishing process?
As I write this post, I’m pleased to report that the manuscript for The Marionette is now finished. Yes, it’s been fully edited and copyedited by my amazing team at McClelland & Stewart/Penguin Random House Canada and me. As you can see in the Progress Table below, I started writing the manuscript on May 3, 2024 and finished the first draft on July 3, 2024. (Just to be clear, that was after a year of developing the characters, mapping out the story, and developing an 84-page scene-by-scene bullet point outline of the novel. That explains how I could write the nearly 83,000 word manuscript in two months.)
Then I undertook my customary three separate passes through the first draft, editing, polishing, adding and subtracting each time. Only after my third review of the manuscript—and adding nearly 9,000 words—did I send it off to my editor, Joe Lee at M&S/PRHC, on August 16, 2024.
Working together over the next four months, Joe and I completed two rounds of editing, ending when I sent the manuscript back to him on January 2, 2025.
The final substantive step in the editing process was copyediting, which began on January 17, 2025, undertaken by our eagle-eyed copyeditor, Erin Kern. (Again, for clarity, copyediting is not so much about the story per se, but about the words and sentences themselves. It’s a final check on grammar, spelling, accuracy, continuity, style, and readability. For example, I have certain words that I lean on too much. Erin catches those when I’m blind to them.)
You’ll see from the table that I received Erin’s copyedit on February 13, 2025, and approved nearly all of her suggested edits, before sending the final copyedited manuscript back to my editor, Joe Lee, on February 16, 2025. Other than final proofreading of the galleys, this essentially completes the editing process that started way back on August 16th.
My standard Progress Table
I create and update a progress table like this one for each of my novels as the manuscript makes its way through the steps in the editing process. I really don’t know if other writers track their work in this way, but I just find it helps me plan and manage my time, as well as keeps me motivated, particularly in the early stages as I watch the completed chapters stacking up in the first section of the table. It provides tangible visual evidence of a momentum of sorts propelling the novel (and me).
Note: You can see near the bottom of the table that my chapter count suddenly grew from thirteen to twenty-two. My editor suggested—and I agreed—that I perhaps had not broken up the chapters in the most logical and thoughtful way. (Yet another illustration of my editor’s critical role!) So I took another run at it and let “the principles of storytelling”—rather than word count—guide where to start and where to end the chapters—something I should have done in the first place. This resulted in more but shorter chapters. I think the story flows much better now with more thoughtfully placed chapter breaks. After ten novels, I’m clearly still learning, and probably always will be.
So the manuscript will soon be “officially accepted” by M&S/PRHC—if it hasn’t already been by the time this post runs—and then heads into the production phase.
We’ve also finished the interior design of the book and the cover design. More on that below. Still to come will be copy for the back cover and flaps.
The design of the interior of the book
Before getting to the interior, the book itself will be a fancy trade paperback with flaps and deckle edge pages—unevenly cut pages.
As noted earlier, my editor and I have just recently signed off on the interior design of the novel. The font and general layout of the book’s interior follows the same approach and format seen in my more recent novels. This includes a very readable font, lots of white space, and even illustrations when you start a new section in the novel—in this case, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
But what about the cover?
I can tell you that we’ve also recently approved the cover design, but I’m going to hold it back for a while. McClelland & Stewart/Penguin Random House Canada likes to have a plan in place for the “cover reveal” so I’m afraid we’re all going to have to wait a bit longer before I share it. Suffice it to say, I’m really happy with the design and I hope you will be too when we eventually unveil it.
A radio interview about The Marionette
Airing a few weeks ago was a conversation I had about The Marionette for Word on the Hills, a radio show about the world of books and writing on Northumberland 89.7 FM, hosted by Gwynn Scheltema and Felicity Sidnell Reid. In addition to our conversation, I read a couple of excerpts from the new novel. It’s the first semi-public reading I’ve done from The Marionette.
The Marionette radio interview: Segment 1
The Marionette radio interview: Segment 2
Wrapping up…
So there you have my little update on the state of my tenth novel, The Marionette. I will have more to share—including the cover design—in the months leading up to the release of the novel on October 14, 2025. In the meantime, if you’re not already subscribed, I hope you’ll consider it, if only so you don’t miss any future posts. It’s free and easy to subscribe. Many thanks and we’ll see you in two weeks.
Congrats, Terry!
I'm wondering -- now that you've been writing novels full time for a while, is it still as enjoyable as when it was a weekend endeavour? Or does it feel more like a "day job"?
Looking forward to October 14th!! Unless one can « pull some strings » 😉