I try to keep these weekly, but sometimes things get in the way.  Last week(end) it was my day job, requiring insane number of hours to try to get a project done.  Stuff happens, and sometimes the writing takes a back seat to, you know, things that actually pay the bills.  Some day, I hope my day job will take a backseat to, you know, a writing career that pays the bills.

I also haven’t been writing much on my newest novel.  After getting feedback from my writing group on Army of the Risen, and getting the first three chapters spun into shape for submission to the 2011 PNWA Literary Contest, I decided to plow forward with a complete edit of AotR.  It’s a lot of work, but thankfully, it’s different work that what I had to do on The Forgotten Road.  There are 3 major plot lines in AotR, and on this edit, I’m moving things around and trying to repair a slow start to the book.  I’ve chopped 4 entire chapters out of the first 18 (my chapters are relatively short, so this isn’t as painful as it sounds), and am trying to add more emotion to the story.

The biggest technical problem I’ve had with AotR is my flagrant overuse of commas.  Almost every sentence has an extra one and that type of abuse can really affect the reader’s perception of the speed of the plot.  Editing commas out is ridiculously time consuming, but it really does change the tone and pace of the story.  It’s amazing how removing just a few from a paragraph can turn a very monotonous passage and into a breathtaking adventure.

My hope is that the edit of AotR will consume another 2 weeks or so.  Then it’s back to writing with renewed energy.  It feels like forever since I’ve been heads down into writing and I really do miss it.

I have been doing some reading lately as well, and have a half finished book review I hope to post sometime tomorrow, but reading also slides when things get busy, so instead of two books a week, I’ll hope for one a month until the summer.