Juggling two balls really isn't that hard. Three takes some practice. Four—I've never been able to juggle four balls without dropping one real quick. That's pretty much what happened to me these past few weeks, with my writing being the fourth ball.

That's not to say I did nothing, but it's been a few weeks since I've actually sat down and wrote or edited anything. Things are clearing a bit, though, and I hope to get back to it this weekend if not sometime during the week.

I'll leave it at that so I can get down to refreshing my mind as to where I last left off…

I was allowing myself some time to make a leap. That leap has to do with my current fantasy novel. Specifically, how to make it rise above the rest, so to speak. I think I've re-stumbled upon an idea I'd had way back when I started this venture. I'd steered away from this particular idea for reasons I'm not entirely sure of anymore. But, with the majority of the novel laid out, I think it's time to go back and add some additional layering. Sorry to speak in such abstracts, and because of that this post will conclude post-haste.

The end result of this shift into re-discovered territory is that I'm going to spend some time doing some research. I plan to post that research here as somewhat of an experiment. On my technology blog, I sometimes post information that hopefully is of some use to someone, but more importantly it's simply out there so I can find it again the next time I run into a similar or identical problem. I'm going to carry that idea over to this blog. We'll have to see how it goes.

A weekly progress report as I work through the (second pass) editing of my current fantasy novel.

Alright, so I made absolutely no progress this past week. Actually, that's not true. I advanced my edit page by 1 to 307 out of 367. It's a bit frustrating, especially given that I'm so close to finishing this edit, and, to tell you the truth, I'm not even sure how the week got away from me. One thing came up, and another, and another, and so on, and I just never quite sat down to get any writing done.

OK, even that's not entirely true. I hit upon a climatic part of the story and I did spend some time thinking it out, mostly because I'm not so sure I nailed it as it stands right now, but the silver bullet never came to me. It's going to take some more thought, and hopefully I'll get it sooner rather than later.

Also, I have to admit my mind has been wandering a bit to my next project. In many ways I have to wonder if my current novel is really breaking any new ground (enter yea old foe of the writer, Doubt). I think my next will, so it's hard to not think ahead to it. Plus it's just going to be a little… different. Still fantasy, but it all takes place in one city, and is going to be a bit of a mystery/thriller. At least that's the plan.

For now, though, I've got a conundrum to figure out so I can wrap up The Five Elements.

Note: If you're visiting from Tor Books, welcome. If not, and you're interested in signing up for Tor's Free E-book Giveaway, you can still sign up at their site, though they're almost done with the promotion. Right about July 20, 2008 is the end. Tor's promotion is over and as far as I know the links have been taken down. Sorry if you missed it.

I've been running a series of blog posts, one each week, featuring each of Tor's free e-book giveaways. In short, each post delves a bit into that week's e-book and provides some background on the author.

In addition, if you're interested in downloading the e-books, I have links on each post for the different formats Tor has offered them in.

Here's the list of posts featuring each e-book (in order of their appearance):

1. Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
2. Old Man's War by John Scalzi
3. Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
4. The Outstretched Shadow by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory
5. Farthing by Jo Walton
6. Crystal Rain by Tobias Buckell
7. Lord of the Isles by David Drake
8. Through Wolf's Eyes by Jane Lindskold
9. The Disunited States of America by Harry Turtledove
10. Reiffen’s Choice by S.C. Butler
11. Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder
12. Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest
13. Spirit Gate by Kate Elliott
14. Starfish by Peter Watts
15. Touch of Evil by C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp
16. A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham
17. Orphans of Chaos by John Wright
18. In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker
19. In the Midnight Hour by Patti O'Shea
20. Battlestar Galactica by Jeffrey Carver
21. Flash by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
22. Soul by Tobsha Learner
23. Darkness of the Light by Peter David
24. War of the Oaks by Emma Bull
25. Dogland by Will Shetterly
26. Spaceman Blues by Brian Francis Slattery
27. The Buried Pyramid by Jane Lindskold
28. Spirit Walk by Charles de Lint
    

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It's been long enough since I last reported a free e-book out of Tor that I can't help but think I missed one (or two).

Anyway, Tor's got another one out there. This time we get to take a look at Charles de Lint's Spirit Walk. From the post:

Charles de Lint’s Spiritwalk (1992) is the sequel to Moonheart, his groundbreaking novel about the people in and around a house in modern Ottawa that straddles this world and another one. Here is the same cast of characters, as they deal with a pair of very different threats to the ancient house. As in Moonheart, de Lint skillfully combines a contemporary sensibility, a great sensitivity to the rhythms and patterns of myth and folktale, and a set of simply likeable characters whose lives you find yourself wanting to hang out in.

From the post's comments it appears while this is a continuation of a pervious novel, it does stand enough on its own that it is not required you read Moonheart. I imagine like any pseudo-series, where at least the world and some of the characters appear in both works, having read the previous novel will enhance the experience but not having read won't necessarily ruin it.

A weekly progress report as I work through the (second pass) editing of my current fantasy novel.

Hard to believe that this update marks my 31st week working on the editing of this novel. Part of that was spent on the first edit; lately these updates have been focused on my second edit. As I work through this second pass, I know without a doubt that I'll have to go through it at least one more time. More likely two more times. First, though, some progress…

I'm on page 306 out of 367. That's only an 8 page increase over last week. Overall, I'm 83.3% done, with 61 pages remaining. Another way to look at it is at my current pages edited/week (17.83) I've got about 3 1/2 weeks left before I finish this second edit.

I'm going to leave it at that so I can get back to some writing. Until next week.

This time it's Pyr giving away a free e-book, namely Sean Williams' The Crooked Letter.

Pyr says this about the book:

When mirror twins Seth and Hadrian Castillo travel to Europe on holidays, they don’t expect the end of the world to follow them. Seth’s murder, however, puts exactly that into motion.

From opposite sides of death, the Castillo twins grapple with a reality neither of them suspected, although it has been encoded in myths and legends for millennia. The Earth we know is just one of many “realms”, three of which are inhabited by humans during various stages of their lives. And their afterlives...

In the tradition of Philip Pullman and Ursula K. Le Guin and inspired by numerous arcane sources, the Books of the Cataclysm begin in the present world but soon propel the reader to a landscape that is simultaneously familiar and fantastic.

Download. Read. Enjoy.