Barahir: Blog

I've finished editing the final chapter of The Key. The epilogue remains an issue, but that won't be hard to deal with.

And so, the posting schedule will accelerate, and it will all be posted shortly. Far earlier than the end of August.

I eagerly await the screeching indignation at the denouement with...bated something or other.

Just across all those humps...

The next seven chapters of The Key are fully edited and tucked away for safeposting.

I'm doing final editing pass #1 on the penultimate chapter (currently 15,000 words), though it's an emotionally tricky one with tons of dialogue amidst a sexual encounter absolutely no one saw coming (though they did hear it), so the editing's likely to go slowly. The final chapter (currently 20,000 words) is even more precarious, laden as it is with outdoor sex, accusations, magical fellatio, explanations, crying, evidence disposal, and women falling out of trees.

And then there's the epilogue, which (as mentioned earlier) needs a top-to-bottom rewrite to reflect both changes to the existing story and rather significant changes to possible sequels. Though it's short enough that I don't expect that to take too long.

Anyway, at my current five-day posting interval that means the story would be completed in the second week of September. Since that seems a long way away and since there's an original story I'm really itching to write, I'm going to aim for the end of August instead. Wish me luck.

So far, The Key has been posting on a 3-5 day schedule. Given the previous pace of my editing I thought that would be sustainable through to the end, but I've been mired in the quicksand of a crucial 17K word chapter and simultaneously distracted by all manner of delays. (Most of them pleasant, thankfully.)

In terms of chapters the book's more than 1/3 done, but by word count it's less than a quarter finished. The last half of the book is dominated by long and incredibly involved chapters (I'm going to do less chapter-splitting than I did in The Cage), and one thing I don't want to do is put myself in a situation where everything that's ready has been posted and the schedule is simply waiting for me to work faster, which (given the chapter length) could result in regular multi-week gaps given my current editing pace. Moreover, the final chapter - actually more of an epilogue - needs a complete rewrite; it was written immediately after the prologue to Book 1 and a lot has changed since then.

The next chapter will probably go up today or tomorrow, but from then on - unless something changes - 3-5 is going to become 5-7 until I can clearly see the the finish line on my laptop screen.

Sincere apologies to my most impatient readers. You know who you are, and I remain grateful for your impatience.

No sex in "Chapter 2: Gift." Don't worry, it's coming soon. Or rather...she is.

To those who were hoping this particular encounter would go a little differently, my condolences. I'm saving her for Radagast.

It's true - and necessary - that Book 2: The Key begins much the same way that Book 1: The Cage ends.

For those who found the end of The Cage more than they wished to deal with (and based on the voting that was a fair number of you), don't worry. The Key is, ultimately, a story about redemption and healing. It won't be quick, nor will it be easy, and all of Éowyn's emotions coming out of that experience will continue to be part of her. But the end of the first book is, by a very large margin, the darkest this tale will ever get.