Winter of the Wolf First Draft is Done!

It’s not pretty, but it’s done. Clocking in at 192,123 words, it’s my longest book yet. I’m hoping I can trim a little, though first reader has had no luck in identifying what can go. It’s all necessary because the plot is so freakin’ huge! So I’ll spend the next week or so getting it beta ready, then off it goes.

Aside from Rise of the Storm, which went through several iterations of Disaster of Epic Proportions because I didn’t know what I was doing, Winter of the Wolf has been the hardest to write for completely different reasons. The biggest was probably that I had to kill some characters I loved for legitimate plot reasons. Resistance to that led to considerable procrastination and mental anguish.

Another big issue was that the plot has become nearly unmanageable. With eight POV characters going in all kinds of directions- I think we cover something like seven countries in this one- it’s hard to keep track of what everyone is doing, have it make sense and integrate the various storylines.

The passage of time has become glacial. I don’t even think I cover a year in this book, and that’s a problem since I desperately need some of the children to grow up. I also didn’t cover nearly all the big story points that I’d hoped to. I started out behind, since I had the same issue with Hammer of the Gods, and now it’s even worse. There’s a possibility I’ll need an additional book to complete the series, but I won’t make that decision yet. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the last book being a monster, as long as it’s exciting and wraps up the story in satisfactory fashion. My biggest constraint is CreateSpace’s 800-page limit, so that will probably guide me in the end.

I’m not sure what’s next. I’ll have about a month while beta readers have it, and can either start the next book, or write something shorter. I do have some prequel ideas buzzing in my brain, so I’ll see how I feel about it in a week or so.

But, I MADE IT TO THE END. YAY!!

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