RIP

No one likes to talk about the death of a child.I learned that the hard way, by losing one and then finding that no one wanted to hear about it. Thirty years ago today, I lost a ten-month-old son to congestive heart failure. He was born tiny and sick, and he never...

Capitulation

Farryn’s War just won’t leave my mind. Now, in addition to scenes of The Fall constantly playing through my mind, so do potential scenes of Farryn’s War. The other day I gave up and wrote out part of one such scene that I had to get out of my head....

Housework: The Big Reveal

That number over there –> is 78,236 this morning, before I get started. Before I get started, I look around. At the dust in the corner. At the cluttered coffee table. And so on. And you know what? I’m not going to clean it, because <drum roll>: I...

POP! goes the imagination

I woke up this morning with scenes from a sequel to The Fall running through my head, and I lay in bed for a full hour letting them play out in my mind’s eye. The story will follow a Tolari named Farryn (you’ll find out who he is toward the end of The...

Done!

At 76,782 words, the second-turned-first draft of The Fall is done. I think you’re going to love it. What Steven King does at this point (according to his book, On Writing) is put the manuscript away for six weeks. Me, I’m going to go back to chapter 1 and...

Last Chapter Slowdown

As eager as I’ve been to get to the last chapter, now that I’m here, it feels strange. Tying up the last loose ends, picking up the trail of bread crumbs, less than 250 words of progress on it yesterday. At 74,607, then. How much foreshadowing to put in?...