Greetings, all!

Earlier today I finished the first full draft of Emergence, Book One of The First Proving trilogy. Whew! It is as yet un-edited, but it is safe for consumption by critical fantasy readers everywhere who are interested in providing feedback. If you are interested in reading the draft, just let me know.

The book stands at 125,000 words, and stretches 418 pages in a 12-point Times New Roman-based PDF. The glossary is both incomplete and over-complete… I have to add some people and places to it still, but it also includes entries that will not make sense until the second book is complete! Oops.

There are many aspects of the book for which I particularly want feedback. There are certain scenes I don’t like as much as I should, some plot lines that may or may not strike the right note, some dialogue issues here and there… but instead of pointing these areas out, I am going to just wait for comments from daring readers and see what THEY have to say. Perhaps my areas of worry aren’t the ones that an unbiased reader would pick out.

Lastly, after my re-read I realized just how strongly this book does NOT stand alone. Despite its length, it just manages to introduce the characters and places and plots. NOTHING gets resolved in Emergence, no questions get answered. It is truly just a first installment. My main goal is to get the reader wanting to read more by the time they close the book (err… the file), wanting to figure out the mysteries and anticipate the twists that might be coming. If I accomplish that, I think that it’s a good first book of the trilogy.

All for now, folks! Stay tuned…