Done

This morning, after a long night of editing and reworking, I have sent off the submission sample of "The Ways of Khrem" to Pill Hill Press.

Thank God! That was getting brutal. But the deed is done, and I will take a day or two off before turning to my next project. My entire head has a cramp.

I'll probably also go over the main manuscript from time to time, seeing if any other minor typos or goofs escaped my multiple sweeps.

But mainly we are now at the point where crossing fingers is all that can be done. I want to thank all the people who's input and help made this project possible. I couldn't have done it without you.

Fleshing out the World

"Give me a girl on Candlewalk Lane, they're neither too coy nor outright profane,
Spare me the trollops with warts and big feet, the type you find on Silkwinder Street.
And I'll pass on the slatterns who carry the pox, who practice their trade on the Low Harbor Docks.
Some say Waterdancer Street is the thing, but those girls come at the price of a ring.
(chorus)
Oh give me a Candlewalk Girl, she's brassy and classy and neat.
Oh give me a Candlewalk Girl, she a sassy lassie but sweet.
(chorus)
Tis better to fondle an Issillian Boar Toad, than sleep with a tramp on Brindlefish Road.
I'd never lay with a lass in a Pick Street shack, I'd likely wake up with a knife in my back.
As for the shady tarts in the Royal Park trees, it would only be fair if they paid me.
No, give me a girl on Candlewalk Lane, who's neither to coy nor outright profane."
(repeat chorus)
-"Candlewalk Girl," a popular tavern song on Candlewalk Lane.

I intend to use more than just book quotes to open chapters. I'm also coming up with songs, chants, and childrens rhymes to give a sense of flavor to the book. Also, some of the quotes can be used for a little foreshadowing.

Ten Thousand Words

The rewrite continues. I'm about ten thousand words into a seventy five thousand word novel. The good news is my style and prose improved as I wrote the novel, so I hopefully won't have to restructure as much as I move deeper into the project. I'm really working hard to get this done by my deadline.

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I've been so busy that I've actually apologized to my friends for not being around lately. I've been working at night and sleeping while the kids are at school. That reduces the temptation from visiting certain forums and stuff I like to hang out at on the internet during the day. I also simply work and write better at night.

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I've always been a night person. Always. Of course, being married with kids has forced me to adapt to a daytime schedule. Actually, just being married did that since many years ago, one of my new wifes first projects was to get me to give up my graveyard shift job and get a job being a meter reader, where I had to get up at six in the morning. Then the kids came along and cemented my new reality as a creature of the daytime.

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But given the chance, my body almost automatically reverts to a nocturnal schedule. It's just more natural to me, and always has been.

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I also get to listen to the opossums romping around in our attic. We're going to have to do something about those. They are fighting, running races, and having what sounds like a riot right above my head. Lord knows what they have done to the stuff we have stored up there.

Improvements

One of the pacing issues with "The Ways of Khrem" was it had a bit of a slow beginning. While things pick up as the story goes along, I learned you need to get your hook in early as I grew as a writer. So one of my goals in the rewrite was to improve the stories greatest weakness . . . it's beginning.

I have taken a three prong approach to solve that problem. I've discarded the long descriptive paragraphs that the story opened with, and put some in little book quotes to begin chapters with. I've also worked on showing through dialogue instead of just giving rote recitations of the events in the beginning. And finally I'm adding a prologue, teasing the reader with the aftermath of an event that happens later in the story.

So far, I'm very pleased with the results. It's still the same story, but it reads quicker and easier.I've given myself a deadline to have this done by the 29th. So far, so good.