And so it ends

I have reached the end of Ohlen's Bane, having written the last scene over the weekend. I still need to go back and add some parts to fill in a few plot holes, but the first draft of the book is more or less finished.

The next step will be to read what I have from front to back, notebook in hand, and make notes of things that are wonky, missing, extraneous, or erroneous. Writing is the exact opposite of carpentry. The woodworker measures twice and cuts once. The author writes numerous times, and then measures once, right before publication. And sometimes even after publication.

As I discovered with Ohlen's Arrow, the revision and editing phase of a book project can often take longer than the writing phase. This is where the rough stone gets polished, hopefully into a diamond. And this is where my editor and beta reading team really come into play. Without them, every book would be nothing more than wasted paper (or electrons).

And so it begins

This is just an update on my progress on the sequel to Ohlen's Arrow, Ohlen's Bane. I've written 39,000 words and expect the completed book to be about the same length as Ohlen's Arrow (which finished at roughly 64,000 words). These books aren't quite as long as some authors think they should be, but they have a lot of action at a decent pace, so by the time you're done reading them, you will have the same sort of breathless "Wow, that was fun!" reaction that you'd get after a roller coaster ride.

Thanks to designer Steven Novak, I also have a tentative cover design completed for Ohlen's Bane. I'll release it when I get closer to finishing the book, just in case the story takes an unexpected turn that influences the cover design itself.

Stay tuned.