Finally I am back to writing! Over all of 2023 all sorts of changes occurred and things have finally settled down. I’ve jokingly told people the only thing that didn’t change was where I park my car at work, but that’s close.
Our last kid moved out last February. Of course, since he is a contractor, there are still all sorts of materials outside and inside. He promises that ‘eventually’ they’ll all be moved.
Then we fixed up the lower level of our raised ranch and moved my oldest daughter and family in–daughter, husband and five kids. My computer was disconnected and setup again twice. Then, for some reason, I was sick once each month from November through February. I’ll be glad to see winter gone.
However! I’m back writing again and Book 7 is now over 90,000 words. The plan is to finish the first draft by the end of April and off to the editor. Generally there are three edit sessions each by the editor and me. Right now I’m figuring out what to include and what to put off to the next book.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your point of view, Book 7 will end with two cliffhangers. The reason is that there are things happening around the team that they are oblivious to.
The character with the most ‘screen time’ in Book 7 is Misa, the assassin. As you could guess, she does have opportunity to demonstrate her skills.
Characters returning from earlier books include Dammeron, TakIndigo, Matthew Bennett, Lucillenda and Flores Thilirium. And one really big surprise.
I don’t want to say too much as there are lots of surprises. The All-star voting commences and the All-star matches occur on Christmas Day.
Finally, the book will include a short story about 8 year old Chaoschick. I was attempting to write a story to fit the first line required for a contest. However, I wasn’t able to stretch the story to the minimum length. So, don’t blame me for the Mickey-Mouse first line.
For this book, I will explore services to produce a professional (or something close to professional) book cover. Unfortunately, the artist that I obtained the picture for the book cover of the revised book 1 prefers to have his ‘models’ without clothes and in intimate positions. No, there will be no naked Ravens. 😉
Then, even with full-time work, writing, etc, I’m going to be posting something every Sunday.
Raven of Iskandar 