I didn't quite finish within Stephen King's recommended limit of 90 days, but I finished nonetheless. The first draft of The Fountain, the first book in the Second Chance series, is a done deal.
With 98 chapters and 122,000 words, the historical epic, set mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1905 and 1906, is the sixth longest of my 21 novels. It is also the first to feature a "fountain of youth," a literary device I have wanted to employ for several years.
In the book, Bill, Paul, and Annie Carpenter, three elderly siblings from 2022, find youth, health, and romance in the time of Teddy Roosevelt. Determined to make the most of their second chance, they start new lives in California with only a vague understanding of a horrific earthquake that awaits them on April 18, 1906.
I expect to revise the manuscript at least three times before sending it to my editor. I hope to find a suitable cover sometime in the next few weeks. The Fountain is still set for a September release.
