It's been a busy summer. Each day I try to be up by six and start writing, knocking of between two and three in the afternoon for lunch and then my daily run, then more writing and research in the evening. There are 30 chapters in the book, and I have 23 of these complete in their rough draft format, and am halfway through the 24th. The amazing thing is I've managed to interview nearly sixty members of the 95th Bomb Group directly. Fortunately, in my capacity as a writer of other books, I interviewed some key members of the 95th before they passed away as well.
Add to this reading over 300 mission reports (some of which are fifty to sixty pages), dozens of MACRs (Missing Air Crew Reports), roughly fifty self-published memoirs, hundreds of personal letters, over a hundred books on the subject, plus conducting on-site interviews in Horham, England and all over the United States, and you can see how this project has pretty much been my whole life for the past several years.
Projected completion for the rough draft of the book is two-three weeks. I am very fortunate to have a number of qualified individuals reading/critiquing and editing the draft. Also, the book will be filled with photographs selected by the 95th Bomb Group Foundation, and there has been talk of adding a CD-Rom in the back as well with mission lists, MACRs, and photos.
Current word count is roughly 125,000 words, with another 35,000 projected.
That having been said, I'm taking the day off tomorrow to go hiking in Yellowstone. It will be the first time I've been in my favorite Park in over two years.
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