It’s done!

I did it!

I almost can’t believe it.

117,664 words.

Just shy of 1 year of writing and book one of The Shadow of Vale exists as a full rough draft.

My plan is to let it rest for maybe a few days and then do a read through taking notes and seeing what works and what doesn’t. After that I will try to do some hard edits, see how much rewriting I will need to do. If it’s not too bad, and the edits aren’t super extensive (They probably will be, honestly), then I’ll start next steps for getting outside eyes on it.

Thank you so much for reading and coming along with me. Hopefully you’ll hear from me again soon. For now, here’s a “goodbye” snippet (This is not from the end of the book.):

“Maybe when all this is over you can see them again.”

Zuriel sighed, his head fell back into the pillows. “I’m not even sure that would be better. What would I tell them? I’m the savior of a magical realm and I will outlive all of you by a few centuries?”

Aila lifted herself from his side to see his face. “Maybe just goodbye. It might give you all peace.”

Zuriel reached out and gently ran his fingers through the hair by her face, a gesture he seemed to enjoy doing as much as she enjoyed him doing it. “Do you think it would?” He searched her eyes.

Aila considered the question a moment. She’d lost so many and while she knew the fate of all those she loved, she had not been given the chance to say goodbye to any of them. Not even Kyra who had been so close. Her body had still been warm when they buried her.

“Yes.” Her voice came out weaker than she’d hoped. “Yes. I think it would help.”

He nodded and slipped his hand into her hair, pulling her close for a gentle kiss. It felt like a balm on the wounds the question had opened.

Zuriel pulled back, kissing her cheek and then her forehead before settling her back against his chest. “I think you’re right.”

In the last stretch.

This week was a bit rough. I was taken out for a few days by a migraine. But I do have the draft over 114k, nearly 115k and I am in the last sequence of events. Very soon I will be wrapping up this draft and I am so excited about it. It has been rough with these scenes stuck in my head and not being cognizant enough to sit and write them. Plus, looking at a screen isn’t the most comfortable thing with a migraine.

Maybe next week will be the announcement that it’s done….

Here’s a snippet as unspoilery as I can put:

“They’re coming.”

The voice sent Harkin scrambling to find a place to hide.

Blasted transporters. Harkin thought as he rounded back down the way he’d come. Not far into the hall was a storage closet and Harkin slipped inside.

“You think they’ll head to the throne room?”

“No. If they know anything, they’ll know Azazel never used it. They’ll be heading to the executive rooms.”

The voices were growing quiet as the men moved farther away. Harkin slipped out of the closet and carefully made his way to where he thought the men were going.

“Hold here. Vic, set it.”

Harkin slowly risked a glance around the corner as he approached. He bit off a curse as the group vanished as soon as his eyes lay on them. He drew back and wracked his brain for the best path through the air vents. They’d hidden themselves with some sort of illusion which put him at a disadvantage. They’d be able to see him, but he couldn’t find them. And the only reason to be setting up illusions was to let others close enough to strike.

“You will not be getting him that easily.” He muttered to himself before making his way as quickly and quietly as he could to the nearest accessible air vent.

Let’s Go!

I am so excited about getting this draft wrapped up.

I am a little stuck because I am getting into a long-ish battle sequence and the ending I have settled on has changed what book 2 is going to be and I am so excited about that part of the story as well and it’s pulling my mind a little ahead of where I am actually writing.

But, I am so excited to actually know where I am going with this.

I can’t wait to get into tearing it apart and fixing it. But I do have to finish it first. I am making good progress with that. The draft is now about 110,600 words.

Here’s a little snippet:

Aaron clenched and unclenched his fists as he stared at the empty whiteness where the bleed would soon open before him.

Deep breath in. Out.

He reached toward his sorcerer magic, holding each element near the surface.

They’d worked and planned and how he had to trust the men he worked with.

It’s time. Halvar’s voice filled his mind.

The air before them rippled as the bleed opened.

He took another deep breath, all the weariness and anxiety was lost in the surge of adrenaline.

“Go.”

Almost done

Hello!

Last week I missed my update for a few reasons, the chief of which was it was the weekend of my daughter’s birthday and we were celebrating.

But I also didn’t have much to update because I spent most of that week stuck in a particular scene in The Shadow of Vale and puttering around in my two contemporary romance stories while I tried to figure it out.

Well, I have figured it out. Yesterday I had one of those writing sessions where the characters were saying and doing things that were not in the outline and were actually brilliant arguments for why the order I had the events planned to occur in was wrong.

I have since paused to pray and figure it out and this morning I think I know how to finish this book and what the next book is going to look like (and it will probably be the last for this story).

I haven’t worked everything out entirely, but I am excited for how it is looking now. Granted, I am well aware that I say this all the time. What can I say? I’m a pretty happy, optimistic writer.

So with this clearer vision in my mind, I am hoping that by the one year mark (March 12th) I will be done with this draft and able to let it rest a bit before tearing it apart again (but not rewriting it, I think I am finally past that part of my process) and then editing.

I did have a secret goal of maybe aiming to publish by Oct of this year, but that feels a little too optimistic even for me. haha!

As of now, the draft is sitting just over 107k and with the events coming I think it will land around 140k, which was my first gut instinct of a word count goal.

Here is a little snippet:

“I can’t go to battle and face Samael. I can’t save Vale. I can’t make him pay for what he’s taken from me; from all of us. But I can do this. I can stand by you. I can love you.”

Update

Writing has been really slow lately. A combination of poor planning and illness has taken me out for a significant time span. I am always optimistic that I will be able to pick it up, but we’ll see.

I do have this draft over 102k now. I have ideas for the second book pulling together as the ending to this one comes together as well.

I am more having an issue of uninterrupted writing time rather than ideas and inspiration.

Considering moving to a google docs system so I am not stuck with my laptop to write, but can switch between my laptop and my phone. My current, laptop only system isn’t going well at the moment.

Anyway, here is a little snippet:

Could that really be what she wanted?

He reached for her and she stepped closer with determination in her warm grey eyes. “Please.”

Aaron melted, wrapping her in his arms and resting his head against hers. He held her and tried to form his thoughts into something that would reassure her, but didn’t reveal the full truth he wasn’t permitted to share.

Happy New Year!

Hello again!

I have had a very strange, but fruitful past few weeks. I spent a month serving on Jury Duty which was a rather wild experience. Very pleased I got to do it, though it felt like I had two jobs for a month and my babies are very excited that I am not gone most of the week now.

I took some time to focus on my faith and drawing near to God and that has done wonders for my creativity. I believe this is a gift He gave me and I aim to honor Him with it, so it makes sense to me that I am having a much easier time getting the ending of The Shadow of Vale together.

The draft is now over 100k and I am in the build up to the ending. There are two points that I think work as stopping points for the story, I am leaning toward one more than the other, but I will see how it feels when I get there.

I found a point of tension that helps build to the end of the first book and lay the foundation for the next book and I am quite pleased with how it’s working out. A little surprised I didn’t see it before, it’s been laid into the story almost from the beginning. Almost like I meant to use it haha!

Here is a little snippet:

“Playing with this much water actually sounds really fun.” She grinned and reached out to link the life point. She was immediately aware of the water and gave it a tug as she released Zuriel’s hand and sprinted toward the cliffs.

“Aila? Aila!”

Aila jumped off the edge and savored the brief feeling of weightlessness before gravity fully took hold and she dropped toward the water that rose to catch her. With a laugh she took a few steps to slow herself before turning around to face Zuriel who stood on the edge looking worried. She pressed her hand to her mouth at the sight of Pyre fidgeting behind him as if he had been preparing to dive after her.

Quick Weekly Update

I didn’t get much writing in this week. There was a small gap between the outline I made and where the draft left off and I managed to work through that this week and today got in just about 1k bringing the draft up to about 93,500 words. About 2k short of my goal, but it wasn’t nothing, so I’ll take it.

Hopefully, now that I’m into the part I have a decent outline for, I will move a little quicker through it, getting down 1k in 30 mins every so often like I did today. But we’ll see.

Here’s a little snippet:

“Me?” Aaron squeaked, voice cracking as he took a step back. “I can’t…I’m not…I’m…” “You are a symbol.” Hadrian spoke from Fintan’s side near Lonan. “And you aren’t alone. You don’t need to have everything figured out, you just need to step out there. The men will follow you. They will fight for you. You’ve got to trust us.”

Quick update

Last week didn’t go well.

I had a couple good writing days and then I got taken out by a migraine and I haven’t had a day to sit and write since.

However, I did sit down tonight and wrote out a rough outline of what I am doing with the story to the end of this book and I am very excited about that. I am thinking it will be fairly quick to get the ideas more refined and on the page so I can start doing revisions and maybe actually have some alpha readers (never made it that far before.)

I am very excited even if I only added about 1k to the draft since my last check in.

A little snippet:

The low burn of anxiety that had been with him since [redacted] had explained his plan to bring down the wards for Azazel’s men flashed over into panic.

He’d trusted the wrong person.

So far, so good

While I didn’t hit my goal for the week (91k) I came real close bringing the draft over 90k.

There were a few days where life just got in the way.

I may still be able to get the other 1k in later today, but probably not.

All the same, I am happy with the increased progress this week.

A snippet:

Aila isn’t up yet. Halvar sent.

Tell her I will join her for lunch. Aaron sent back. He wanted to spend the rest of his life cuddled up in a warm bed with her as if nothing was wrong in the world, but reality was reasserting itself.

Death was coming for him.

Good week

I recently made some adjustments to my priorities and habits and the result has been a very good writing week. I am now well over 87K for this draft, a little under what I wanted to reach, but I have a lot of the next portion outlined and a plan for when to write.

Hopefully I will be able to keep pretty close to my goals and have close to a completed draft by the end of January.

Here’s a little snippet of this week’s work:

Aaron’s mouth dropped open. She was a nymph. Her pale blonde hair flew around her with each movement.

“Do you feel any illusions?” Cyrus’s quiet question was almost missed by Aaron in his shock.

Illusions?

“Zuriel, do you feel any wizard magic in use?” Cyrus clarified, his voice grew urgent as he shifted his grip on his sword.

Did he think the small nymph woman was a threat?

“No. No, just the normal wards.”

Then it hit him. How had she gotten here? There was no way to open a bleed in the training grounds. At least, not where she was standing.