This rewrite is going faster than I expected. I'd only hoped to do the first 100 pages, but it looks now like I'll get through the entire book.

Which needs to be done.

The book on the Sagebrush Rebellion is mostly politics, of which I can only use a little. I'm reading 30 pages a day, and meanwhile, I'm editing 30 pages a day on "Takeover."

I'm hoping to present that is a done and done for my publisher. Editing done, and maybe even the cover. I've approached Mike Corley, who did the cover to "Deadfall Ridge."

This is a sequel--sort of. I counted how many chapters are Hart and Nicole, and it's roughly 40% or so. I think that's enough to squeak by.

Especially since 9 out of the first 11 chapters are Hart and Nicole, so that gives it a bit of grounding.

The beginning is much, much smoother, much more like a regular book. I think I improved the readability dramatically.

It's still a stretch, drama-wise, but it's not a bad thing to try to write over my head. If nothing else, to see what I'm capable of.

So I'm reading the Sagebrush Rebellion book--which, not surprisingly, is about politics more than anything else. Still, it gives a vivid portrait of the people and the land. The near vicinity of Malhuer terrain is different from the near vicinity of the Fossil Beds, though if you go a ways out, it's the same sagebrush and juniper.

But I really don't want "Takeover" to get too political. I'm trying to tread a middle ground, but I'll probably piss off both sides. What's interesting is that I got so much of it right. The parts I don't have right are either not applicable to the different setting and/or go too deeply into the politics.

Still, in doing this rewrite, I'm starting to see that the "Takeover" is pretty good again. I swing back and forth on the "how good" scale. I did try to do something different, to up my game. Problem is, I probably took on more than I could chew.