January 2, 2023

Fresh beginnings...

It's been a long haul between the last post and this one - not just three months. Reflecting on 2022 made me realise just how nasty the year was on personal levels, although there were plenty of good things too. BUt one change is in place - I begin 2023 as a full time writer!

For the record, my lack of recent posts is due to several matters:

• ending a long career
• setting up workplace resources for my successors and colleagues for 2023
• having an emergency gall bladder operation

So, 2022 - glad you are done.

The current project - Harmi's Song: Book 4 of The Last Wizard series - is one chapter from draft completion and currently sitting at 89,000 words. I planned to have this one done before Christmas, but see the list above as to why it took longer.

Having built toward the final confrontation between our heroes and the antagonist, I'm currently crafting how that confrontation unfolds amid an epic but fundamentally one-sided battle. Overwhelming outnumbered in a battle that doesn't make much sense to my protagonist - a dragon caught in human warfare - the antagonist is determined to 'rule the world' and ignore the rights of others - think Putin and the like - and while our dragon is keen to protect her immediate human family she struggles with the human need for power at whatever cost to other humans. I can't say more - spoiler otherwise.

The Last Wizard series across four books will represent around 360,000 words of creativity when finished. The next steps are to:

• complete the final chapter draft or denouement for our characters
• work through drafts of book two, three and four to check for consistency/continuity
• edit book four in the usual first draft manner
• decide whether to add a language guide at the end of the books where appropriate
• improve/update maps

I'm estimating as a full time writer I can go through these steps and be ready to approach publishers by March/April with the proposals. Guess I'm about to find out the efficiency difference between cramming writing tasks between full time employment and other life matters, as I've always done, and the 'employment' actually being writing.

One target is to increase the frequency of blog posts as personal discipline for each week of writing. There. It's in black and white. You guys can hold me to it. I will make Sunday evening the time for writing reflection each week.

​Happy new year. Let 2023 be a healthy, productive and satisfying year for you all. We're underway!