Clee Hill: Blog

For all those kind readers who drop me a sitemail from time to time, asking for an update on Book Two - here it is.

* Those pesky Real Life issues that had been hanging over me for the past few months (nothing bad, just highly distracting and energy draining) are now over, meaning I can keep working much closer to full-time than I had been able to.

* I have a title, but I'll hold that back for now, even though, like Book One's title, it is not readily apparent what it means.

* I have completed first drafts for the first nine days.

* I am working on day ten this week.

* I have outlines in my head for what needs to happen for days eleven through fifteen.

* Book Two will probably wrap up around chapter twenty-two, but this is subject to change if plot necessitates it.

* Once I'm ready to upload 2:1, I'll uploaded the revised 1:15, as well as blog it, too.

* This is a lot of story. Thus far the first drafts are closing in on 150,000 words, and I may be only just at the half-way point.

* By the end of Book Two, more of The Thing's workings are known, but final revelation may be for Book Three, or I may conclude Book Two and come back to Book Three later, once I've had my knuckles fitted with bionics.

And of course, it won't appear until it's ready, but I am working to get the release of Book Two started by the end of the year, at which time new characters, situations, and puzzles will reveal themselves.

Cheers...Clee

Quick update for those following these things, one of the two RL issues has passed, so I've been able to get into the first drafts on a meaningful basis.

At the moment, it looks like this Book will cover two to three weeks, chronologically, but each day will not always be a chapter on its own, and some will be combined into one chapter. After all, it is not realistic to have something happen every day, after day, after day.

You get the idea.

For now I'm four chapters done, fifth underway, with six, seven, eight, and nine pretty well mapped out, but after that it gets a little hazy for now.

So, it's under way, it'll be ready when it is, and Luke's adventures with Stef and Leri will continue, with puns and more Welsh, too.

Cheers...Clee

For those keeping track of things:

* Plotting going well.

* First drafts...progressing.

* But real life is militating against getting into this with gusto. Grr.

It will come, but a little slower than I hoped.

Ho hum.

Thank goodness for gin, Pokemon, and my Diddley Bow.

Clee

Okay, this is not going to plan.

As I plot away on Book Two, it is becoming clear how much trouble I have created for myself in ending Book One as I did. It is taking so long to rationalise and normalise the consequences of that ending, that it is threatening to destabilise Book Two. I am finding I need to consume so much time in explaining things away that Book Two is in danger of losing its focus from Luke and Stef and Leri. That ending is beginning to cost me the tone and believability Book One has already established.

Dilemma.

Resolving this is also not helped by real world issues which will consume much of this month.

For now this leaves Book Two bubbling away in my subconscious for the most part, along with the mad idea of revising the ending of Book One so that Aurilla is displaced elsewhere, possibly entirely.

After all, how much should fidelity to a year old idea concerning The Thing be allowed to derail the emergent joy of Wilhelm, namely the Luke/Stef/Leri triangle?

Increasingly less so, it seems to me.

We'll see...CH

Book Two Chapter One.

Ouch.

This is the chapter that I need to get written, first, as it serves as the foundation for the future, establishing where to go from for a lot of characters, and how the plot can move forward toward the (already) known goal for the end of the book.

Consequently, there have been a lot of rewrites.

A lot.

The trick has been to balance doing what needs to be done without overbalancing the chapter in terms of plot, exposition, or heavy-handed foreshadowing.

Not at all easy.

As things stand, the first draft of C1 should be done sometime this week, after which I can turn ideas and intentions for the rest of the book into some kind of plot, whereupon the heavy writing takes place. So lots of incidents to develop, locations to scout, and a couple of new characters to bring into the mix.

Meantime, thank God for my electric Diddley Bow and homemade gin.

Cheers!
Clee