Progress Report

I look back wistfully on the day, not so long ago, where I thought I could JUST edit out typos in the Tenai trilogy and it’d be good to go. Sigh.

First, I’ve done a lot more line editing than I expected (or wanted) to do.

Then, this morning I went through the whole of the long third book, redid the chapters — there were 17 chapters per 440 pages and now there are 28 chapters — then rearranged these shorter chapters to alternate the viewpoint most of the time, then cut about half a chapter and added a placeholder chapter that at the moment consists of a two-line summary of what needs to happen in that chapter.

Elaine, it was your advice that made me do all the above. Kim, thanks for pointing out a good place to break books two and three. I hadn’t realized that Jenna didn’t take any pov chapters until quite late in the main story, so that breaking the two books right before her first pov section would make sense. That’s how the story is now arranged. So now:

1. The Year’s Midnight (plus an interlude) — 200 pp
2. Of Absence, Darkness — 300 pp
3. As Shadow, a Light — 440 pp (or so).

Well, that’s okay, I think. Especially since in ebook format, it’s hard to tell how long a book is anyway.

Anyway, goal for this week: write that missing chapter — I trust it will be short — and skim through the whole of the third book to check flow and make sure I didn’t accidentally delete a chapter while rearranging the manuscript. Then go through and correct typos for the second book and make a proof copy.

So, yeah, Tarashana is very definitely going to come out before the Death’s Lady trilogy. No question. I’ve seen a first draft cover for Tarashana and it was good, so I’m expecting to finalize that pretty soon. I suggested either a golden eagle or — because the most important eagle appears in the land of the shades and is white — a white bird of prey; ie, a gyrfalcon. White gyrfalcons look extremely dramatic:

Also, I have to say, doesn’t “gyrfalcon” look like a fantasy word? Hard to believe a bird with that name actually exists. This is pretty much exactly how the white eagle is described in the book, except of course a real gyrfalcon is somewhat less otherworldly. So, at the moment, the cover of Tarashana features a gyrfalcon and that is probably how it will stay.