Current location:	The Roundhouse
Current mood:	okay
Current music:	Nightwish - "Meadows of Heaven"

Scaling the wall

Novel progress so far: 

Almost forgot that it was progress-update day.  

Well, this week saw more progress than last week. It's not been easy though. Perhaps I've mentioned this before, but there is an old Chinese proverb that goes as follows: "If you neglect your craft for one day, it will neglect you for two." 

So true. So painfully true. I've neglected my writing too much in the last two weeks (mainly for legit reasons) but it made no difference - neglection is neglection. In the days when I tried to make up for lost time, it was a real struggle. I liken it to standing at the foot of a wall and staring up at it, thinking 'Wow, how the heck did I manage to get up there?' I've really learned that writing every day has so many benefits. Not just in terms of word count, but in terms of creativity and enthusiasm. So, some days were hard but it gave me the chance to put to use a new attribute I've developed: the ability to keep writing in the face of adversity (namely, when the voice in my head is saying 'Stop. Why are you doing this? Why? Go and have some tea and biscuits and a nice lie down. Who cares about the novel? No-one is buying epic fantasy at the moment anyway. In fact, just jack the whole thing in and take up gardening' and so on). But I bit the bullet, slaved away and the word count this week is a sign that it was worth it. 

Incidentally, the notion that editors are not currently looking for epic fantasy is one I've seen being bandied around several well-informed blogs. If it's true I have no idea why. George R.R. Martin is as popular as ever, while Joe Abercrombie's rapidly-increasing following indicates the sub-genre is in good health. Well, whatever. I'm just going to keep slaving away. 

Lukan and Rat are almost at Longhorn Watch now. They're spending the night at the Roundhouse, a sort of halfway house between the Watch and Mordvayne. I've almost finished chapter 5, which has turned into something of an info-dump chapter yet without being overly info-dumpish. If that makes sense. I've said before that it's funny how characters sometimes pop out of nowhere. This is what happened with Rat, and now it has happened with Avran. I decided that Magnus,  garrison captain of Longhorn Watch,  just wouldn't travel alone, so I decided he was accompanied by two guards - Callas and Avran. Callus is fairly quiet and a bit uptight, whereas Avran just opened his gob and didn't shut up. He's witty, talkative and a bit of a ladies' man. He's also quite a lot of fun to write. I've no idea where on earth he came from, but he's livened things up a bit. I hope he'll stick around. I think Lukan hopes so too, the two of them seem to get on well. 

It's not all good news though. Some skath have been sighted south of the Watch, not far from the Roundhouse, which is unheard of. Why have they come so far south? It will fall to Lukan to discover the answer, and find the answer he will...but not without paying a deadly price.