I started back on book three last night after another long stretch of inactivity. This manuscript has been the most frustrating thing I’ve ever worked on. To put it in perspective, when I first started it, I was still married. I got about a chapter and a half in and went through my divorce. The book had to go on the back burner because I was too screwed up emotionally to focus on writing. A year and a half passed and I finally felt comfortable enough in my own skin to start back, and the writing flowed smoothly and easily. I had everything rolling in the right direction and felt great about the progress I was making.
Then, I started teaching dual enrollment. After a couple of weeks of teaching those kids, all of my momentum was gone. Each day, I wasted most of energy playing babysitter to kids who had no business taking a college course. Not all of them were that bad. If I could’ve boiled the class down to the half who were serious and focused, it might not have been so bad, but the other half lacked the attention span or, in some cases, the work ethic, to handle college level work. In short, once again this manuscript got put on the back burner.
Now, I’m back at it for round three. This time, I will finish the last four and a half chapters or die trying.
I feel like the book is pretty good. It needs polishing and editing, but the story is pretty intense. Also, some of the seemingly minor plot points from book one come back into the foreground and take on more meaning. Also, I get to explore the back stories of two of my favorite characters, Leinjar and Krondious, so the book has a lot of great things going on. Overall, I think it’s an excellent midway point for the series and really sets up book four nicely. Now, it’s time to finish it.
Big Owl's Tree 