I am home from my trip to New York City, where I visited with many friends at the NY Comic Con—all in book publishing. It was my first time to the Big Apple and I had a great time. Pictures will be forthcoming.

Two things:

1) I didn't meet with Ralph, the agent who has my pages. He took the weekend off to be with family outside of the city. He also received two big manuscripts from clients—the new Terry Pratchett book and the new Robert Sawyer book—so he is going to read those first before getting to my four chapters. Of course, I'm happy with that; he should spend his time with clients who actually make him money.

2) I'll be redesigning the website for Naomi Novik, the fabulous writer of His Majesty's Dragon. She has been meaning to do so for quite some time and now that we have met officially she asked if I'd be interested. I am. I also met artist Stephen Youll, one of my long-time clients, and he wants me to redesign the website that is now posted. Since I love designing website, and I pick and choose who I want to work with, I'm looking forward to these two projects.

But the great thing about flying across country is the amount of time one spends in an airplane. For most, that comment would have been the very definition of sarcasm, but for me I found a great opportunity to actually get some writing done. I wrote 3/4 of my novel's first Interlude, and on the way back I mostly finished it. It turned out exactly as I had hoped, and now the stage is set for the second part of the novel. It was from the point of view of Philip Plantagenet, the Dagda King. It also includes Arawn, Philip's second in command, as well as references to Celtic personages like Gwawl son of Clud, Goronwy the Houndmaster, and the deadly hag named simple the Cailleach. The fantasy elements are beginning to broaden in scope now that Bran has been brought into the real story, and I know the next few weeks are going to be great fun for me to write.

The Interlude is a bit larger than I had hoped for. It is 2372 words. Perhaps after editing I'll be able to get it below 2000. Time will tell.

The word count as it stands is now:

Prologue: 3045
Chapter 1: 4075
Chapter 2: 2973
Chapter 3: 3241
Chapter 4: 4144
Chapter 5: 4547
Chapter 6: 2793
Chapter 7: 3598
Chapter 8: 4939
Chapter 9: 4257
Interlude: 2372

Anyway, I am shipping out hundreds of books signed by Terry Brooks over the course of the next few days, so no writing really. But I hope to begin outlining Chapter 10 tomorrow night after I've spent 15 hours shipping books.

I hope you all are well. Can't believe why you keep reading this...

Labels: The Dagda King

Wow, what a two week period I just went through!

I've been extremely busy—to the point I'd forget what day of the week it was. I had three online signings with Jim Butcher, Terry Brooks, and Peter Hamilton, which meant the majority of those two weeks was boxing up and shipping out orders for fans. Jim was great fun and I look forward to seeing him again. Peter is a Brit who is too intelligent for his own good. And Terry Brooks is always the good friend and mentor.

I really enjoy doing the signings. I love speaking to fantasy fans and helping them out. I like meeting writers and talking to them about the business and the craft. The Signed Page is a part of my life in a way I never thought it would be, and I doubt I will ever end it.

Then multiple websites had to be updated. And I deep-cleaned my apartment—gotta love springtime cleaning. Tons of errands had to be run for my upcoming New York City trip. 15 hour days for two weeks was not fun.

It retarded my opportunities elsewhere. I got no writing done. At all. I simply had no time for it. After I got all the books shipped out and websites updated, I finally could get to editing the first four chapters of The Dagda King for Stephen King's foreign rights agent, Ralph Vicinanza. Arguably, this was the most important thing I had to do, for my future plans at least, and it was the last thing I could do due to the responsibility I feel toward my customers.

But the chapters are finished. Shortened. Tightened. Crisp. They are closer to how I wish them to be. It was also very enjoyable going back to those first few chapters and see how my writing and story have changed over the last few months. Those first four chapters are the first arc in the story; they open up many questions without many answers. I hope Ralph enjoys the chapters and we can sit down when I am in New York and talk about the book and any areas of development I need to address for better writing down the road.

Here are the adjusted word counts for those chapters:

Prologue: 3045
Chapter 1: 4075
Chapter 2: 2973
Chapter 3: 3241

Here are the old numbers:

Prologue: 3173
Chapter 1: 4060
Chapter 2: 3244
Chapter 3: 3660

Chapter One actually went up in word count, but I had to smooth over some transitions that were kind of choppy. Other than that, the chapters went down in word count. Chapter 3 had the most significant reduction, but it is an action-packed chapter and I found far too much description in it.

If Ralph likes them, I may have a very professional agent behind me once I finish the book. If he doesn't, I hope to hear his thoughts with unabashed insight included. This New York trip couldn't be coming at a better time, and I hope I come back with good news.

I also gave the four chapters to a friend in the UK who loved my first book but who doesn't like urban fantasy. We'll see what he has to say about them and I hope he posts his thoughts here for you guys to read.

Back to preparing for the New York trip. I think I am finally going to relax today after so many days of work, and I might even take in a Mariners baseball game this afternoon to get away from my work for a while.

Hope you all are well! More updates from New York!

Labels: The Dagda King