"Teacher, Teacher, What You Say?" - Graduation!

I'm back! I forced myself to start blogging again, and I have good news: I'm graduating! I presented my nine chapters (approximately 300 pages) to my thesis committee at Ohio University back in February. I have been approved to receive my master's degree in journalism!

I should receive my diploma in the mail sometime this summer. I don't plan to walk in the ceremony; I live a few hours away and I'll just be happy to finally have my "piece of paper."

What's next? I have a lot more writing to do before I start sending query letters to agents and publishers. I've finished covering Prince's life from 1958 to 1988. I'd like to continue working until I reach 2004.

I would love to finish the book by December 2015, but deadlines are always changing (at least mine, anyway). Here are the tasks that I hope to complete during the next few weeks:

1) I'm going to organize the many drafts of the book, and determine which one I want to use going forward. I have made a lot of changes to meet the standards of my thesis committee. I probably won't keep all of those changes in the final version.

2) I'm going to revisit my "Interviews" spreadsheet. I need to identify the sources I'd like to pursue before I begin writing chapter ten.

3) I'm going to rewrite the end of chapter nine so that it is more of a transition to chapter ten rather than a conclusion for the book.

4) I'm going to (finally) start researching the Batman era.

My goal is to be back next week!