First Draft Complete!

It feels rather surreal to be finally reporting this, but the Epilogue of Book Two, and therefore the whole of Book Two, is now complete in first draft.

It's funny how in the course of writing the boundary between dream and reality has continually shifted. For the years in which I was writing the first draft of The Two Empires, it was a long time before the idea of having a complete manuscript felt like something that would ever happen. For a long time I assumed that it would sooner or later come to a halt and be forgotten, as other writing projects had done before. 

Once I had the first draft complete, there was still a daunting amount of editing to do and it still didn't seem at all likely that I would one day have a final manuscript that I would feel comfortable releasing to the public. And yet now the familiar cover of The Two Empires can be found on my shelf and the shelves of other people.

At the start of this year, even having released The Two Empires and started on Book Two, I was still only half way through and the idea that as busy as I am I could complete the first draft any time soon hardly seemed realistic. And yet, here we are.

Now, the editing that lies ahead once again seems almost insurmountable, but this time I actually think I can do it. I might have a finished product this year, or I might not - there's an awful lot going to happen between now and December - but at some point, relatively soon, it's going to be available for you all to read.

Expect a post sometime this weekend announcing the title and basis of Book Two. It will be nice to finally talk about it. I remember I read somewhere once that it was traditional to eat chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream on finishing a book. I don't know if it was meant to be on the first draft or the final one, and I've never heard it mentioned by any other author, so I've no idea if that's actually a real thing. But it seems like it ought to be a tradition, and it's one I embraced for the completion of The Two Empires, so I guess I'll be looking for ice cream tomorrow.

It's been a good day for endings. Get ready for a new chapter. 

09/08/2014: Updating for ice cream. If this isn't actually a real tradition, it ought to be!