Book 3...the First Draft is DONE!!

In 1993, I saw an interesting weapon in a Museum Replicas LTD catalog.  I'd been working with long-handled Chinese weapons at that point and I thought the blade in the catalog looked like something I would LOVE to use as a personal weapon.  I idly drew some sketches of what I thought it would look like, and even created an RPG character that carried it for use in a D&D game I was playing with my dear, departed friend, Jason Blankenship.  The character was a jester.  I know that probably surprises you.  Stop that laughing.

Not long after that, had my "I can write better than THAT guy!" episode and began work on what would become Mage's Burden, using the weapon I had envisioned as a focal point.  It took 21 years for that story to make it to print, but not long after I held that first copy in my hands, I quickly started on Gart's Road to continue the tale.  16 months later, GR was complete and on the shelves.  I took a break for about 2 weeks (during which I struggled to not write, telling myself that I neeeeeded a break), and then started on Book 3, A Mage Awakens.  That was back in December, 2015.

On Tuesday, July 12, around 2:30pm, I finished the first draft of AMA, and with it, the story that had been rattling around in my head for well over two decades.  It was finally all there in black and white.  All the pieces had come together, the dust had settled, and I definitely had the feels going on.  Yes, yes, there is still a lot of editing to do, and some things might yet change here and there, but all in all, it felt finished.  Done.  Fini.

It has been such a crazy ride for me.  I've known these characters, both heroic and evil, for nearly half my life, and now, their tale is pretty much done.  Sitting there at my desk, I felt such a wonderful sense of completion, relief, and yes, some sadness.  I've always had their story pressing in my head, wanting to get out, and I miss it already.  I feel so strange right now, even though I've done this before with my previous books, going through the editing process to tune it all up feels a little different than it did the last two times because of its finality.  The trilogy as I had envisioned it is complete.  Now, there is an emptiness that is hard to describe.

The good news is that there is already a new story taking shape.  It's unformed, just flashes and images, really, but I can feel it in there.  I can already see the return of some old friends and the approach of new ones, as well as the presence of some very nasty bad guys.  Even at this ridiculously early stage, I'm comforted by its presence.  I've apparently got a lot more writing to do once this last book in the trilogy is polished and published.  And that makes me happy.  Have a great week, folks.