While there hasn’t been a lot of posting, there’s definitely been a lot of work going on.  First, Beyond is now at two hundred sixty pages and rapidly climbing.  Second, as of last night, we have finished the final “read-through” of The Fallen.  This is where I make sure that the text reads well as spoken word, and it helps untangle any over-complex sentences.  I have also made the edits up to page 472, already, so I only have those going up to 650 to work through.  Then, I’ll “re-convert” the book to MP3 and listen to it one … final … time. This is for continuity and flow and a just making sure I haven’t switched characters names by accident or something like that.

Finally, I have just about finished the cover art for The Fallen.  I have an amazing image from Cybercat (Stephanie Stone), of Lyssia kneeling in grief in front of the Healer’s Grave, and with a few other composites, it’s looking pretty sharp (one of the best covers yet, I think).  Super thanks to Stephanie for such awesome work!!!

My goal is that, in the next month, The Fallen will be fully ready for those who want to read it, and I can start the first read-through (long delayed) of the work done so far in Beyond.

Just a quick note about Beyond.  It’s the first in a new series where the timeline is fifteen hundred seasons later than the end of The Fallen.  Well, you probably have to add about one-hundred and fifty to two hundred seasons to that, since the fifteen hundred starts counting when Sahnassa and Vanarra “leave” Thuria.  The first part of this book covers Vanarra’s departure from Thuria, including a much more detailed version of the events high-lighted in the epilogue of The Rescue.  Then, there’s the break in time where Vanarra is off doing “other things” – what those are I’ll leave as a mystery.

Beyond  is also going to cover some more of the ground found in The Fallen, namely questions of belief – those who hold true to one, and those who take such and twist it for their own purposes.  In many ways, those latter groups in the Thurian future hold more menace and fear than even the de Caterra or the Foundationalists.  They are also a far more difficult problem to address, one that even Vanarra isn’t sure she wants to tackle.

Take care and see you in the future!

JTL