I finished the book last Wednesday. It's been a week. I decided to give myself until this last Monday before editing, thinking I needed a few days away from the project to recharge my batteries.

Instead, I discovered I wanted to get back into it!

When Monday came, I had already edited the first four chapters of the book. They were the chapters agent Ralph had read and liked enough to ask for the entire book. Upon reading and editing those chapters, I can't understand why he asked for the entire book. Honestly. They were that bad. It goes to show how much a writer can grow in the span of a book.

I rewrote those first four chapters extensively. I am now fairly happy with them.

The first half of the fifth chapter, Chapter Four, had to be rewritten entirely. As I wrote The Dark Thorn I received whispers of what the second and third and fourth books in the series would be about. I realized I needed a new character would take on a large role in The Long Winter, and that character had to be introduced in the first book somehow. I rewrote Chapter Four from scratch, introducing Laur Pemley, keeping the scene I had originally envisioned but having it be dialog between Bran and Laur. It worked out great. The chapter is so much better for it.

I'm pretty sure Chapter Four is the only chapter I will have to entirely rewrite.

Now I just have to edit three or four chapters a day and I'll be done!

Ralph asked me to send the book on April 23rd. He will be in Britain for the London Book Fair next week and he is preparing for it until then. Once he gets home he will read my book, which is really exciting and daunting. Not sure how long it will take him to do so, but I'm not worried about it. Just having an agent of Ralph's caliber reading my book is a wonderful thing by itself.

I will also give the book to Terry.

After this weekend and Norwescon, Todd Lockwood is going to do a few pieces of art for me. He's been under deadline for a few covers lately and those take precedence of course. So next week I may have something to show.

Things keep rolling... I just have to get this book edited enough to send it on!

And then I can relax for a day before I have to redesign Terry's website and my own website!

Labels: Ralph Vicinanza, Terry Brooks, The Dark Thorn, Todd Lockwood

I finished Chapter 30 today. And it was more fun than I expected!

When I finished Chapter 29, I had two ways I could venture into Chapter 30. I had two point of view characters who could both relate the same information to move the story forward. One of those characters, Cormac, needed a final POV chapter to finish up his character development arc; the other character, Richard, needed a final POV chapter to finish up his character development arc. Both would work well for what the story needed.

So, what to do?

After two days of pondering it, I made my decision.

I went with both.

How can one chapter have two POV characters in a novel where all chapters are single POV character chapters?

I had to add a chapter.

Yes, I added a chapter to the end. It was necessary. There was no way to get around it and still have the end of the novel present strongly. It will take me a bit longer to finish the book but it will now be a better book.

So I wrote a Cormac chapter. I kind of thought that was the way I wanted to go when I finished Chapter 29 but I wasn't sure. I wasn't excited about it. It had to wrap up some things but nothing really exciting was going to happen. Not yet. It would say the things the story needed it to say and that would be that. I thought it would be short. I thought by the end Cormac would be placed exactly where I wanted him.

I was pleasantly surprised. The chapter became really fun to write. It came alive, more than I thought it would. I found a very fun way to introduce some cool new fantasy items and it worked. I got really into it. And Cormac's arc is solid and I'm happy with it.

It is also the last Cormac chapter of the novel! So part of the novel is entirely finished. That feels weird to me. It shouldn't, but I've spent a year with Cormac and now our relationship is over in this book.

The end is really feeling close now, in a concrete way.

As the word count stands:

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 Chapter 10: 3346 Chapter 11: 3185 Chapter 12: 3639 Chapter 13: 4878 Chapter 14: 4562 Chapter 15: 3840 Chapter 16: 3984

Chapter 17: 5441 Chapter 18: 4725 Chapter 19: 5651 Interlude: 3687 Chapter 20: 4122 Chapter 21: 4537 Chapter 22: 4220 Chapter 23: 4275 Chapter 24: 4468 Chapter 25: 5046 Chapter 26: 5458 Chapter 27: 3715 Chapter 28: 4838 Chapter 29: 4698 Chapter 30: 5216 Chapter 31: Chapter 32: Chapter 33: Epilogue:

So, that is 33 chapters finished. I have three chapters and an epilogue left to write. The epilogue I could write right now in my sleep. As for the chapters, it is the major climax of the entire book and I know how all three of them play out. Big things happen. I hope I am up to the task of writing it.

Chapter 31 will be a Bran chapter. It is the beginning of the end.

I will be done by the end of February. I hope to be done with the editing too by the end of the month. Then the real fun begins.

Todd Lockwood painted sketches. Querying. And patience, patience, patience...

Labels: The Dark Thorn, Todd Lockwood

In my research this last week, I ran across this image:


I'm in love with it. I must have a good print or giclee of it, to be framed on my wall. Does anyone know who it is and what it represents? I do.

Yes, that's right. I do. I thought I'd share it though and play with your minds a bit. The image is part of my back story and will give you a tiny glimpse into it, although it doesn't give away a thing about The Dark Thorn really.

Which reminds me. I should probably write Todd Lockwood and see if he wants to get together in a week or so to talk about the sketches. I'll take several excerpts from the book that I think would make a great cover or interior illustration, and let him choose those he likes to sketch. Should be fun!

Labels: The Dark Thorn, Todd Lockwood

Every holiday season it is difficult for me to get work done. From just before Thanksgiving all the way to the first week of New Year's recovery, I struggle with getting any writing done. It should be the easiest time; The Signed Page goes into a weird hibernation since authors don't usually tour during the holiday season. But there are too many distractions—family or otherwise—and I revel in them like a kid.

Unfortunately, that also means my word output suffers.

The good news is I am at the end of The Dark Thorn. As of last week it has been a year since I started writing it, and that coupled with the reality I tossed away three months in the summer for fun and games, I'm fairly happy with where I am at right now. But some interesting things have happened as of late, and I must bear down. My future is there, waiting, and it is time to grab it and make it mine.

As all writers should. Right? People who dream to write need to write, damnit, and put themselves out there!

First off, I have finished Chapters 25 & 26. That means I have a total of 29 completed chapters. The chapters ended the way I expected them but two characters in particular grew in the telling a bit, which I liked. As you can see those chapters are a bit longer than those that precede them; hopefully that won't happen in the next few chapters where the hard-hitting climax must be quick and furious and kick all sorts of extraneous ass.

Gotta force myself into shorter sentences, shorter paragraphs, short dialog, and lots of action. I don't think it will be a problem.

Chapter 26 ends with Bran in some serious trouble. He has some major choices to make coming up, choices that will shape him from here on out. To those of you who read this blog, I really do try to have my characters evolve and develop. Without character development a book is nothing in my opinion, and I hope I will leave Bran and company drastically changed by the end of the book compared to its beginning. Time will tell, but I'm fairly happy about it.

That's the first news. Here is the second of three.

Artist Todd Lockwood, who I've become good friends with over the last two years and who I respect a great deal, has agreed to create four or five pencil and/or paint sketches of key scenes in my book—all before I submit to my agent and to Del Rey. In return I will act as a sounding board to his own writing efforts, something I'm more than happy to do anyway.

Not sure if the sketches will be pencil or paint. Here is an example of what it could be like:



As you can see, I'd be happy with either. Using the sketches when I submit will hopefully do two things: 1) It will help focus the agent and/or editor on certain parts of the book and given a visual representation of what a cover could look like... as only Todd could paint it, and 2) It will remind the agent and/or editor that I have dozens and dozens of professional contacts in the industry, many of which I call good friends who will help in any way they can to make my project a success. I want those I submit The Dark Thorn to to be reminded of my strong marketing platform and what better way than to have one of the best artists going show he is my buddy.

I know, egotistical. Presumptuous. Does it really matter at all? Well, I'm leaving nothing to chance. As I wrote to one of the blog comments this morning, a submitting writer's job is mostly trying to remove as many roadblocks to the process as they can, and I want that marketing platform to be obvious to the agent and editors I send The Dark Thorn to.

Now, for number three. Random House is bringing me to New York City to cover the NY Comic Con in February 2009 for Suvudu and I can't wait. I'm super excited about it! That also means I need to finish up The Dark Thorn by mid-January, give it a good edit, so I can meet with a few people about it. We'll see, but timing is everything in this business and sometimes Luck is a wind being choked by a closing window.

As the word count stands:

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 Chapter 10: 3346 Chapter 11: 3185 Chapter 12: 3639 Chapter 13: 4878 Chapter 14: 4562 Chapter 15: 3840 Chapter 16: 3984

Chapter 17: 5441 Chapter 18: 4725 Chapter 19: 5651 Interlude: 3687 Chapter 20: 4122 Chapter 21: 4537 Chapter 22: 4220 Chapter 23: 4275 Chapter 24: 4468 Chapter 25: 5046 Chapter 26: 5458 Chapter 27: Chapter 28: Chapter 29: Chapter 30: Chapter 31: Chapter 32: Epilogue:

So, the next chapter will be Chapter 27, the 30th of the book. Chapter 27 is the second to last Richard chapter. It is a chapter I've known from the very beginning of this process almost, one of those sets of scenes that I was shooting toward as I outlined the book. When I began the outlining process I had this climax in mind and I had to move Richard in that direction, telling his story as I went, opening him up to the reader—or closing down to the reader, as the case may be for some.

Chapter 28 I've also had in my head from the beginning. There are two writers out there who I have confided in about this chapter and both of them loved what I want to do. I'm fairly confident, in a subtle way, the scene and its direction has never been done before in Celtic mythology. We'll see if I can pull it off.

So, off to outline Chapter 27. Thanks for reading this blog. It's nice to know some people have been following me along my own journey. Let's hope the fun continues!

Labels: The Dark Thorn, Todd Lockwood