Hello, readers mine! Some of you have doubtless noticed it’s been deadly silence here on the blog for a fair while. Has work kept me that busy?
In a word, yes, though it’s not the paid variety. That is, not yet; my work has gone dormant, so I’m not reviewing scripts at the moment. (EDIT: 5/19/2020–turns out this was because my higher-ups forgot that I existed for a month; fun.)
Enough faffing about: I was finishing the first draft of The Necromancer and the Reaping Spear! I signed off on the epilogue not long after 7PM EST this past Saturday, the 11th, and I’ve filled the intervening time with loafing around and computer games because word-mom needs a break. It’s a rather large draft at 190,118 words; I actually expect it to become a teensy bit larger before publishing because there are a few ideas in it which will need more fleshing out. We’ll see how much I manage to shave via line-edits, hm?
This also means that I completed NaNoWriMo during the wrong time of year again, having blitzkrieged the last eleven chapters, 100+ pages, and 75,000+ words in an eleven-day span from April 1st to April 11th.
As I said, word-mom needs a break. In fact, this post represents the last creative writing of any variety I’ll be doing until April 26th, when my self-mandated two-week recovery period will be over. Two weeks after that on May 12th, I’ll allow myself to return to The Necromancer and the Reaping Spear for revisions. Aside from letting this mortal coil recover from the trials inflicted upon it by serving as my vessel, I need this time to gain mental distance from the work.
Otherwise, I’ll return to it with the same mindset I left it in, and so overlook the same flaws and mistakes; this happened with my earlier attempts to revise The Necromancer and the Revenant.
On that note, if you’re looking for something to read during our ongoing global quarantine, that first novel of mine is still excellent and still available over on Smashwords. I’ve made it available in as many formats as possible, including .mobi files for Kindle users–though you’ll have to transfer that from your computer to your Kindle, of course! If you’ve read this far into the post, I’d hope you’re here in part for my books, and you really ought to read The Necromancer and the Revenant before the, erm… you know…
…direct sequel to it.
Now I know I can’t just leave the post there without a teaser, so while I don’t want to spoil anyone, the core plot involves Skybleeder. Some necromancy does, in fact, occur. I know, I know, I’m terrible. A more serious one: I’m making much heavier use of multiple protagonists, using different viewpoints to explore other major characters in more depth. I may or may not also be using this to control when and how you fine folk acquire certain l o r e , because I’m a filthy cheater that way. The Vigil have made the inevitable move from looming threat to primary antagonists, but the surviving party members also pick up several powerful new allies. There’s much ado about gods and demons.
And there I must stop myself, lest I both violate my rest-period rule and become carried away chattering about all the things I wish you to read the book in order to learn! I can promise that the first act hook is clearly established in Chapter One this time, which, as with The Necromancer and the Revenant, I will post in its entirety as a free preview here on the blog in the run-up to publishing The Necromancer and the Reaping Spear.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must acquire coffee and rest my eyes for a while before possibly diving into Doom Eternal. I shall return eventually– ta-ta for now!
Ashenvein Gate: Stories & Dreams 