Overall word count the last few days has ground to a tremendous halt the reason are;

• A good part of yesterday was spent meeting up with the screen writer for Theft of Swords. No, don’t get excited we don’t have a movie deal on the horizon but as I’ve not gotten much movement trying to sell it with the books, I’m going to switch tracks and try it from a script. Michael Klein is going to be doing the writing and I highly respect his approach and writing ability.  It was a long “working meeting” and very productive.

• Marc Simonetti has been working on the cover for Hollow World and as I’m paying him a great deal for this I need to make sure that it works well with my needs, and as such I’ve been doing multiple cover mock ups using his illustration in various ways and communicating feedback, and all manner of Hollow World distractions.

• A reader informed me that he thought I was eligible for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and so I had to do some digging into that.  Turns out he was right, but I had to verify it with the officials who administer that award, then write a blog post as I’m already late to the table.

• The final copy edits for The Rose and the Thorn are due on Friday.  Usually I would have had 14 days to do so but that was trimmed back to 9 so while I’m usually not under deadlines – I am now.  Luckily it’s mostly just approving what they have, but there are also some minor adjustments that I need to make based on some of the beta feedback so that is taking me some time to do.

• And last but not least I’ve been going over the first three chapters and adjusting…and finding the voice.  I FINALLY got it where it needs to be so tomorrow I start in with Chapter 4 and I’m pretty sure I’ll be back to my 2,000 words a day pace.  My current tally doesn’t seem to demonstrate that is my standard pace but it is.

Today is Wednesday – and I have a particular “ritual” on those days.  I’ll post more about that, possibly tomorrow but for now I’m off to the pub.