The book is shaping up.

It's a tangled mess. You're not sure if it works. Things seem out of place.

You dig in, try to put it in some order. You write clarifications, you add here, you cut there.

And then the fog clears and you have a book.

Even though I still have two and half chapters to write, over the last day or two, Blood of the Succubus became a full book, with a beginning and a middle and an end, that made sense, that seems well-written to me.

I mean, I like it.  A lot.

What I have left to write is pretty clear in my head.  They are mostly action scenes and those are the easiest to write. (Or, as I always say, easiest to write, hardest to write well.)

I'm confident this is going to get done, possibly as soon as today, if not tomorrow.  This book will be at least 90 thousands words before it is done, which is full third bigger than most of the books I've been writing.

So then what?

I'm going to give it that extra rewrite I've been talking about. I'm now convinced that the rewrite after the rewrite is totally necessary. It improves the book immensely.

This is a good solid book with some weighty subject matter, a complex plot, lots of characters, that moves forward.

As always, it's the writing I think truly makes a book. Once you have the story -- and for me, the story is often the story -- then it comes down to execution.  I believe I'm a better writer than I was even a year ago, just through constant writing.

I think the writing can always be improved. Almost every run through.

Linda says I'm getting "better and better." She's biased, maybe, but that encouragement is so important, and I'm so lucky she is willing and able to give it.

But for the first time yesterday she mentioned she "missed me" because I'm writing so much.

I'm going to try to finish what's on my plate by the end of the year and then take another look at what I'm doing. As I mentioned a few days ago, I feel burdened by my creativity.  I've got to figure out another way to do it that isn't quite so monomaniacal.

I've had a hell of a run, but I think I can finally let myself believe that I can ease up without losing my creativity.  Just moderate it, put it on more of schedule, allow for other things to happen.

I've written a careers worth of material in the last four years. At least half of it isn't ready for prime-time but the raw material is there. Maybe play with that for awhile.

I'm really proud and grateful for what I've done. I can see the progress. Now I have to figure out a way to integrate other things into my life.