Ready to get going again.

Woke up at 5:00 in the morning, a prologue to Deeptower going through my mind.  I hadn't intended to have a prologue but apparently my subconscious begs to differ.

This is coming easy -- almost too easy.  I've already written 11,000 words. 

I worry when that happens, actually.   I feel like maybe there hasn't been enough of a struggle.  But then -- I'm sure that will come.

I think I'm benefiting from all the world building I did in Deviltree.  I can take that as my starting point, and move on from there.  It makes things so much clearer and easier.  I can concentrate on story and character.



I think Faerylander, in the end, benefited from all the problems.  It's a better book.  I don't know whether it's a good book or not, but it's like a problem child who I love and who I finally need to let go.

Let the little beast go out into the world and hope for the best.

I know that I cut what I could and retained what I could, while pushing for a forward momentum to the story.  I think I made the characters more sympathetic and their motivations much clearer.  I think I managed to add a little tension.  I cut most of the light and or silly passages.

There were some intrinsic problems that arose from pushing it through early on -- I was five months in and stuck and decided I needed to push forward, and I'm both glad I did and determined that I'll never do that again.  But I've worked and worked at ameliorating those problems as best I can,  and hopefully the reader won't notice.

I'd almost given up on Faerylander, but I'm glad I kept at it.  I think its a real book now.



After a couple of months, I'm back to writing.  The last original book I wrote, Spell Realm, was a real problem, which made me wonder if I'd lost my creative mojo.   But it has been gaining favor with me as the weeks have passed.  Some of the scenes are very clear in my head, which must mean they were effective to some extent and that there will be something to work with there when I'm ready.



Blood of Gold is with Lara, my editor.  I'm hoping to publish it early next year so that my Vampire Evolution Trilogy will be complete.



My intention is to just write next year.  Concentrate on the writing.  I have enough books finished and lined up to be able to put one out every 3 or 4 months.  Most of them still need to be edited, formatted and covers prepared.  But most of them won't need extensive rewriting.

The ones that do need extensive rewriting -- mostly my fantasies -- I'm setting aside for now, with the intention of going back occasionally and working on them.  They are just kind of inchoate right now, and I'm letting them be that way.  The way they are interconnected means I'll probably have them all done at the same time.

The Faerylander world, the Deviltree world, even the Led to the Slaughter world, all lend themselves to a series of books.  I think the Vampire Evolution story is complete.  Freedy Filkins is a stand alone (I'm not tackling LOTR's!)

So I'm creating a body of work that I'm proud of.  Maybe no one will ever notice, but I know what I've accomplished.  I'm starting to be really proud of it.