Time for a Writing Update

So it's been a while since I updated the few readers who trickle into my blog on how my writing projects are going. Here we go:

The Return of the Mourning Dove

I finished the first draft of this fantasy novel late last year (in September or October, if memory serves). I had put it on the shelf to let it cool so I could take an objective look at it and begin rewriting it. Because of the move to South Saint Paul, I have not had the chance to start on it yet.

But here's a picture of the manuscript in all 100,000 words of its glory:

I really need to get to work on that soon.

The Last Expedition

I've mentioned my Christian sci-fi trilogy before. Well, I'm about two-thirds of the way through the first draft of version #3 of book 1. Confusing? Let's review.

I originally wrote The Leader's Song trilogy as one long book (easily 300,000 words long). When I realized that the sheer size would scare off publishers, I decided to chop it up into three books, namely The Rune Enigma, Exile, and Return to the Fold.

At the 2006 ACFW Conference, several people commented that there were structural problems with the books. I debated for a long time how to fix said structural problems and finally decided to tell the story in a linear fashion. The first two books would deal with what I've referred to as "the ancient story." The third book would tell the "modern story."

Back in January, I made a New Year's Resolution to write every day. And my first project would be the first volume in the rewritten Leader's Song trilogy. Since The Rune Enigma, the original title, referred to events in the "modern story," I scrapped it in favor of The Last Expedition.

In essence, this new version has three parts: The Conservatory, Target Four, and Target Ten. Target Ten is basically the last 30,000 words of The Rune Enigma and I figure I can save them with minor tweaks and updates to get everything to blend.

About two days ago, I finished work on The Conservatory portion. It clocks in at a little over 40,000 words. That leaves me with Target Four, which will hopefully be about 30,000 words long when I'm done.

The real problem is that I'm behind. I had hoped to have the entire project done at the end of February. Obviously I didn't quite make it. So now I'm upping my daily quota from "any writing" to "at least 1,000 words (preferrably 2,000)."

So there you go.