I’ve always loved that expression: “back in the saddle.” Not that I’ve been in a literal saddle in the past 50 years or so (since day camp in the 1960’s I think), but I’m always hopping into figurative saddles and racing off somewhere.

In my last, brief post, I mentioned that I’d gotten caught up in a side-project that had pulled me away from writing for what turned out to be nearly three weeks. That’s as long as I’ve gone without working in as far back as I can remember, (which is yesterday.) I’m sure there are writers out there who are thinking “Ha! He calls himself a writer, and he didn’t write for the better part of a month? Clearly, his mother was a hamster and his father smelt of elderberries!” (Yes, another Python reference. I can’t help myself!) Alright, probably no one said that, writer or otherwise, but my point is that it’s pretty uncharacteristic of me to take that long of a break.

Of course I never really stop writing, because I have a good old-fashioned pen-and-ink paper journal that I scrawl in pretty much every day, but we’re talking about work here, not letters to Kitty. (Anne Frank reference… very deep.)

So, what was I talking about? Oh yes… work. The side project is finished, and the long avoided twenty-third chapter of A New Shadow had commenced. Just commenced. Just now. Literally. I went to Scrivener to see what chapter number I was up to and wrote the first paragraph so that I wouldn’t be lying when I said I’d started. Because you’d know.

The reason I waited so long to get started on this chapter was really selfish. It’s about one of my favorite characters, (full disclosure, they’re all my favorite -but I digress), and it was going to be a somewhat pivotal moment in his life, and I wanted to do it justice. My original idea was to have he and his childhood friend, with whom he’d recently reunited after eighteen years, get into a real jam together, and the wizard Yarren would have to save them, thereby earning the trust of the said childhood friend, who, like many of my other writer-friends’ fans, is not very big on wizards in general. I could have made it work, and I probably could have made it a fairly exciting episode, but it would have done very little for the development of any of the characters.

So instead I went in a very different direction, one that is much darker and will ultimately be far more dramatic and key to the series overall. It could end up being a quiet highlight of the entire book. We’ll just have to see.

I’m Sorry

On a related note, I suppose there is some room for an apology regarding the intentional vagueness of these posts. I like talking about work-in-progress, but I don’t like saying so much about it that I’ve taken away all motivation for reading the work when it’s finished. “I don’t have to buy his bloody book! I read the blog posts! The idiot told the whole story, bits at a time! What an ultra maroon!” (Bugs Bunny reference, and that completes your pop-culture trifecta for the day!) If it leaves you even slightly intrigued, then so much the better.

Because I have a confession. My evil plan is for you to purchase and read my books. Because I think they’re pretty good, and if you were to give them a read you might like them as well. So, as always, if you feel so inclined, click the purchase button at the top of the page and take a look at what I’m always going on about in this blog.

Reminder

Don’t forget A Dark Clock is available for Kindle absolutely free until Friday, Sept. 8. Don’t miss your chance to start your journey through the magical world of Quadar!