So Long 2012 — Hello 2013!

With the passing of the craptastic year that was 2012, I'm going into this year with a more optimistic outlook. Yeah, I was like that last year, had plans to finish the first draft of my novel by summer, have it edited by the end of the year and ready for querying by this time. Having my novel finished was my one big goal and I was positive I could accomplish it. Then shit happened, as it always does, and for much of the year I had dealt with a bout of depression. I didn't finish the first draft (though I am one chapter away from finishing it), I certainly didn't edit it, and querying for representation, well, you know.

But this year, gosh darn it, I will have this book finished. I will have it edited and read by Betas, and I will start querying. And I will begin work on the second book of the series as well. I have chunks of it written already because I had thought I would be able to merge the two halves together into one. Nope. Not gonna happen. By the time I finish the draft of book one it'll top off at around 190,000 words, and yes, I will have to do some cutting. I already have ideas where I can cut to get the word count down, and I am certain there are areas of wordiness scattered all over the place that could use tightening. I don't know how far I can get it cut down, but if i can get it down to 150,000 words we'll be better off, though from everything I have read on the intertubes, that's still a pretty high word count for a brand new author, even for historicals or fantasies, of which mine is the combination of both. If I can get it down further, all the better.

So with that, I am going to keep this post short, but I will share with you a snippet from my book:

 

“I see what you are trying to do, Vlad. You will not get me to tell you what you think you want to hear. It is my past, not yours. You don't need to know any of it.”

“I thought, since you've helped me so much with my melancholy, the least I could do is try to help you.”

“Spare me your lies, Vlad. I know what this is. You and Miklós made some sort of bet to get me to tell you my deep, dark past, correct? And to win this bet, you need to get me to tell you by the time we reach Buda. Am I right?”

“No.” Damn, the woman knew too much. How did she—

“Lie. For a man whose father punished people for lying, his son is a perpetual one. A bad perpetual liar at that.”

“I am not a liar. Sometimes I stretch the truth or don't speak it at all, but I am not a liar.”

Anna raised a brow. “This is a jape, right?”

“You are an impossible woman to get to laugh.”

Happy New Year, everyone, and may this year bring you many great things and prosperity!