Ways On Its Way
I’ve another good more-or-less
finished draft of a novel ready, a somewhat typical ‘light’
fantasy to be titled THE WAYS OF WIZARDRY. This is the book I had no
intention of writing, that I had had not added to my queue nor even
never thought of.
But it came out of me anyway, with less
planning and outlining than usual. Oh, the outline did come; that is
inevitable with the way I work. And I had a clear concept of my main
protagonist from the start — the wizard Im has been referred to in
other novels but never appeared before. And a young Im was the
protagonist of my short story THE BOOK, THE BEAST, AND THE BURGLAR
from which this novel grew (it is now the first chapter).
A journey of discovery (I do that a
bit!), bordering on YA (Im is but 17 when the tale begins), with
varied threats against our hero’s existence, his first love, hints
of a darker future but ending on a high note — that’s pretty much
the book. I was not that far into the process when I realized it was
the first installment of a continuing story, an epic even. So expect
sequels!
Length was a fairly typical 60,000
words for this sort of book. Why I think in stories of that length,
I’ve no idea. On going back through, I know that I am likely to add
very slightly here and there, fleshing out places I might have rushed
through a little. At most, the narrative might grow by a few hundred,
maybe a thousand, words. That’s if the process goes as it normally
does. It could be published as-is, really, but a little polishing
never hurt. Nothing big; the story itself is solid.
So we’ll get it ready and out the
door at Arachis Press. Release date is set for January 6 next year.
That’s plenty enough time (and it is a good idea to set myself
deadlines). Before then, my poetry collection VOYAGES will be
appearing, on Nov 1, 2017. And on to other projects!