Elizabeth Schechter's Blog, page 33

Wrapping the Year

I’m now officially finished  for the rest of 2018.  Ashes and Light went off to the publisher two weeks ago, and I wrapped Written in Water this past Friday. Patreon posts are scheduled out to the end of January, and for the rest of this calendar year, my major work will be prepping to start writing once the Winter Break is over. Item one on the list? I need to finish writing the synopsis for Forged in Fire (Heir to the Firstborn book 2), so that I can get that going. If I start writing the d...

Mirror: Chapter 25

I just now finished chapter 25 of Written in Water.

The last chapter of Written in Water.

Now, it won’t go up here until sometime in January. So my new goal is to have the edits done and the book ready to go by sometime in February at the latest. I also need to finish writing down the synopsis for Forged in Fire (aka Book 2).

And, next week, I’ll be starting my holiday baking. So there will be cookies.

But for now? That’s a draft.

Cookiepocalypse is nigh!!!

Well, it won’t happen this week. I have too much to do this week. But Cookiepocalypse 2018 is coming!

Now, if you’re asking yourself what the heck I am talking about, welcome to the funhouse. You must be new since last December. Allow me to explain.

Cookiepocalypse is what I call my annual holiday baking. I regularly make enough cookies to feel a small army. A good number of them are given away, but for the past couple of years, I have been recording my culinary feats of derring-do under the...

Odds and ends

No round up on words today. If you missed it, I finished Ashes and Light two days ago. The first draft is off to my editor, and we’ll see how this goes.

I haven’t done much on Written in Water for the past two days, simply because my “I finished the book” house cleaning is coinciding with my “Thanksgiving!” house cleaning and food prep. Yesterday was shopping, and today I started cooking. So for most of today, my house smelled like mulled cranberry sauce.

This does not suck.

More prep and cle...

Draft Completed: Ashes and Light.

Ashes and Light
Swords of Charlemagne, Book 3

88325 / 85000 (103.91%)

Began: August 12th, 2018

Completed: November 16th, 2018

Total Days: 96 days

Total Words: 88,325 words

Average Words per Day: 920 words

Now to let this one sit for a few days. Then I’ll read through all three books and make sure the non-linear timelines agree with each other.  I think they do, but I want a fresh reread to be certain.

And I’m now officially off (except for fun writing for Patreon) until January.

Stay...

Work in Progress: Ashes and Light, week twelve

Ashes and Light
Swords of Charlemagne, Book 3

80220 / 85000 (94.38%)

 

Just about a month ago, I attempted to walk around a box and missed, breaking the fourth toe on my left foot. This rather painful annoyance meant that I was banned from going to the gym. I wasn’t allowed to do much walking, and I was supposed to stay put and keep my foot elevated.

 

And, to my surprise, it also meant that I’d be finishing writing book a solid month ahead of schedule.

 

Ashes and Light looks to be o...

Work in Progress: Ashes and Light, week 11

Ashes and Light
Swords of Charlemagne, Book 3

Nov 72925 / 85000 (85.79%) November has only just started and I can see the end of the book from here. Both books, actually. Ashes and Light and Written in Water will both be wrapping up sometime this month (although Patrons won’t see the end of Written in Water until sometime in January.)

 

I have no idea when Ashes and Light will be coming out, but I can say that Written in Water will be out sometime in the spring. I need to polish it and...

Work in Progress: Ashes and Light, week ten

Yes, I know there was no week nine. We had just gotten back from NecronomiCon, and I was tired. Also sore — I managed to break my toe on Wednesday the 17th… two days before we left for Tampa!

Ashes and Light
Swords of Charlemagne, Book 3

66361 / 85000 (78.07%)

The convention was amazingly fun, and I had an awesome time. Saw some friends, met a bunch of new people, got to sit with Mickey Zucker Reichert for our mutual signing, and succeeded in not fangirling at her.

And, amazingly enough,...

Work in Progress: Ashes and Light, week eight

Ashes and Light
Swords of Charlemagne, Book 3

49718 / 85000 (58.49%) Work is still humming along nicely on Ashes and Light.  So nicely, in fact, that part of me is wondering if the book is coming together too quickly.  I’m a week and a half ahead of where I expected to be at this point (my projected schedule for the book put me at about sixteen weeks or so for an 85000 word book.) Am I rushing? The answer, of course, is that I don’t know. Once all the words are on the pages, then I’ll...

Mirror: Titles

It’s becoming more clear to me that Heir to the Firstborn is, in fact, the name of the series and not the name of the first book. Which means that in starting to look at covers, I’m also starting to think about titles.

I suppose it makes sense to riff on elements, since this started as the Elemental project. And I do already know the title of the first book. That was the easy one.

So, in no particular order, here are the tentative titles:

Written in Water (Book 1) Forged in Fire Bones of Ear...