Happy New Year! I’ve just finished re-reading and editing the first 14 chapters of Muirwood with my wife. We spent a few evenings reading the chapters out loud with a pen in hand, and it really helped in the editing process. I’ve had a month now to celebrate Christmas and New Years, visit with family, and collect my thoughts again. This is the first time I’ve written a book this way, deliberately alternating months between writing and proofing, and so far I really think it is working. Spending a month to plan the next batch of chapters has really given me time to plot things out in my mind and think about where things are going.
While doing research for the next batch, where Lia is going to leave Muirwood and venture into the world a bit, I’ve been looking at the history of Somerset, the wetlands there, and trying to reconstruct what that area may have looked like 500-600 hundred years ago. I found this great map on-line of the region, going back to the 1600’s. Just looking at the map has given me ideas of where to place Winterrowd and how things are going to develop to get there.
Hopefully by this time next year, the entire manuscript will be done. That’s an exciting thought.