I think I wrote less this week than I have in any week in the last two years.  I’m not exactly sure on that, but since I have no active work in progress, I am strictly in a planning phase for my next book.  I refined the synopsis, brain dumped facts and figures for the world I am building, and tried to organize my thoughts on the plot and the characters.  I have a few more days of planning before I dive into the opening chapter.  I’m going to discuss the concept of the novel with my writing group tomorrow night to see if they can poke holes in it before I get going.  I’ve never done this before – run the plot by people before I write.  We’ll see how it goes.

I’ve also been re-reading The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman.  This was one of the first books on writing that I read after the 2009 PNWA convention, and is still a book I consider the most helpful for a beginning writer trying to figure out how to dramatically improve their craft.  I’m actually pretty proud of how many of the lessons it teaches that I now consider second nature when I write my first draft, so the second read of it is not taxing my memory or demoralizing me.  Rather, it’s a confirmation that I’m on the right track.

Nothing new to report on the agent front for The Forgotten Road.  I did confirm that the agent I sent the novel to had, in fact, received it.  I don’t expect anything before the end of January.

Lisa finished reading Army of the Risen this week, and the review was generally positive, though it seems I need to add more words to it to help develop the characters further.  I think I overcompensated from the mistakes I made in TFR.  We’ll see if my other reader’s agree.  But having to add words to a novel is a new thing for me.

Speaking of other readers, one of my writer’s group, Benjamin Newland, now had a web site of his own.  I recommend you go check it out.

This is probably the last blog entry for me before Christmas.  Merry Christmas, everyone!