August Update and New Review

I was delighted to stumble across a glowing new review of The Desert of Souls earlier this week. You can find it here, over on a great looking site titled Podwits. The Desert of Souls got singled out as the starting entry in a new column about “great escapist literature.” I would pull out a few of the quotes talking about how awesome the book is, but, you know, I’m humble and all.

I’m super pleased that The Desert of Souls is still getting nice write-ups almost a year and a half after its initial printing. Here’s hoping the next one does as well!

In other news, I’m nearly at the two-thirds mark on the rough draft of the third Dabir and Asim novel, The Maiden’s Eye. It feels odd to be so far along with number three when number two is still five months from release, but it also feels pretty good. I don’t think there will be nearly as long a delay between the second and third book as there has been between the first and second.

Each book is a little different. Book three is a little longer and more intricate. I’ve often told writing students that there are many ways up the mountain, and that each project may require a slightly different route to the summit. And so I’m going to try something different this time because my gut tells me I should.

Once upon a time I used to write and re-write and revise the first few chapters of something before moving on, which meant that I never finished anything. Ever since I’ve tried to draft my way straight through a project. Well, because of certain plot complexities, I think once I hit the two-thirds mark of The Maiden’s Eye (or the end of act II, for those of you, like me, who tend to think of plotting in the same way you think of three act play or screenplay structure) that I am going to go back and polish what I have. I feel quite solid about what the final sections of the novel are going to be; it’s the middle third that’s proved the most problematic, and I want to spend some time making sure I set it up and deliver it in an exciting way.

Oh, and hey, it’s August! I can’t believe it crept up so quickly. It’s been challenging getting writing done with the kids barging in every few minutes, but I realize now that I’m going to miss them once they head back to school. And GenCon and Chicon (Worldcon) are RIGHT around the corner. How’d that happen? I’ll be at both. At GenCon I’ll be attending only on Saturday, sitting beside my friend and fellow Pathfinder author, Dave Gross, at the Paizo booth. And at the same table that day will be industry legend Ed Greenwood.

Come Chicon in late August it looks like I’ll be rooming with the talented James Enge, whose new Morlock novel Guile of Dragons has already garnered a PW starred review. I’ll be on at least one panel there, and mid-day Friday August 31st will be reading from my new Dabir and Asim novel, The Bones of the Old Ones.

I hope I’ll see some of you at one of the conventions!