Hello, all!

Time for an update now that we have safely made it through the long holiday season. A few things have changed regarding naming conventions and plans for the books, and there is news on the literary agent front.

• I have  decided, a little tentatively, to dispense with the concept of having a “The First Proving” trilogy as well as occasionally referring to the entire set of planned books as “The Tome of Greystone”. As I read some of my own notes and the old+new query letters, I realized that the multiple names were confusing. And if they are confusing to me – and I came up with them – it’s very likely that I need to simplify. So I am now referring to the completed “Emergence” as book one of “The Tome of Greystone” series. “Knights and Watchers” will be book two of The Tome, and “The First Proving” will be book three. So… no more trilogies. I am just going to number them in order.
• I was able to make significant progress on “Knights and Watchers” during my time off. I made some edits (deletions, really), then wrote a bunch of new material that got the heroes past their encounter with an incredibly scary creature and onto a fancy ball. Trust me, it will make sense when you read it. So as of now, the book is 54,000 words long and consists of eight chapters. My target length is 125,000 words in order to match the length of “Emergence”. Given the material I have yet to cover, I predict there will be a lot more deleting in my future. I am not quite to the middle of this chunk of the story, but I should be! I am hoping, work and grad school permitting, to have Knights and Watchers completed by April 15th of this year. Why the 15th? ‘Cause it’s tax day, and therefore easy to remember. No other reason.
• Things are still quietly simmering on the agent-hunt front. There are currently three agents actively reviewing the manuscript of “Emergence”, plus another three or four publishers (I just got my first rejection from a publisher earlier today… pretty sweet!). I have had by far the most contact with The Zack Company, run by Andy Zack out on the west coast. Via comments on his blog, he let me know that I might know more about his thoughts (or his reader’s thoughts) on Emergence in February. Pretty exciting! Of course, I have been trying like crazy to not get too wound up over any one potential agent or publisher, but easier said than done.

That’s it for now. I am hoping to get a lot of writing and at least one more blog post in over the coming weekend. Thanks for reading!

~Kevin