The Stats Behind Investigation, Mediation, Vindication

Before tomorrow’s release of Investigation, Mediation, Vindication, I thought it would be fun to once again share some of the (mainly ridiculous) stats behind the book. How many times does the main character faint? What 2013 San Diego references are no longer viable in 2020? All this and more!

The Words

# of words in Investigation, Mediation, Vindication: 98,226

A Game of Thrones: 298,000

See These Bones: 131,150

# of words a modern publisher prefers in a book of this genre: 100,000 or less¹

 

# of chapters: 45

…including epilogues and interludes: 46

 

# of times I mistyped”mediation” as “meditation”: ∞²

 

The Cast

# of named characters: 27³

…with at least one line: 19

…that mock or insult John: 10

…in a friendly way: 4

…that isn’t at least vaguely emasculating: 3

 

 

The Setting

# of San Diego-specific references: a bunch

…which vigorously protest anyone thinking the city is just a very southern suburb of Los Angeles: 1

 

# of references that are valid with the book being set in 2013 but are no longer valid in 2020: 2+⁴

 

And… Other Stuff

# of expletives in the final draft: 148

…excluding words like damn, hell, and crap⁵: 42

…and compared to See These Bones: -597!⁶

 

# of drinking scenes: 2⁷

…that end badly: 2

 

# of times John says something dumb: Way too many to count

…and gets his ass kicked for it: Still too many to count

…but turns out to be correct: 2-ish? Depending on your definition of right.

 

# of times John…

Faints/is knocked unconscious: 5

Vomits: Indeterminate (but a lot)

Wakes up in a strange place: 3

…without his clothes: 1

Wins a fight: 2! (Sort of.)

 

Tomorrow, Investigation, Mediation, Vindication finally launches, and I’ll share some of the kind things advance reviewers have had to say! See you then!

 

1. Nice! We did it! Let’s sell this to one of the big five! Oh… wait. We’re already self-pubbing it, aren’t we?
2. It might be my most mistyped word of all time. Good thing I have a 7-book series where the word shows up constantly!
3. Vs. 71 in See These Bones. Much, much more manageable!
4. Damn it, Chargers!
5. Which google tells me technically remain expletives, even in 2020.
6. STB really was an interesting book, wasn’t it?
7. Although one occurs before the book starts.