And here are what has been said about it so far:

 Fast-paced read, full of action-adventure and danger…

                                                        ——(Romantic Times)

Families are divided, heroes are made, and the fate of the world is decided in the exciting conclusion…

Themes of family and identity dominate a story line that is both intimate and world-spanning … exciting action and well-developed characters.

                                                      ——(Publishers’ Weekly)

As you may remember I was pretty chuffed to get a great review from Publishers’ Weekly for Stormlord’s Exile. And now I’ve had another great review, this one from the Romantic Times (which doesn’t just review pure romance…)

As follows:

4 stars (compelling – page-turner)

So, no sooner do I hand in Stormlord’s Exile on Sunday – updated with editorial input changes – than one of my beta readers (Phill Berrie, bless him) points out a large plot hole towards the end that no one else spotted. Including myself.  Sigh. Thank the magic for someone like Phill. Fortunately, although the plot hole is major in terms of the impossibility of what happens next, the fix will only necessitate a relatively small change: two waterpaintings have to be done where there was only one…

My delivery of  the book was majorly late. It is book number 10, and it’s the first time I have overrun the schedule to the extent that the publication dates have to be changed, for which I apologise to all you readers out there. (And of course, to my wonderful publishers, neither of whom decided to hang, draw and quarter me, but reacted with remarkable restraint and unqualified support; and then — probably with much teeth gnashing  — rescheduled and rearranged their publishing list.)

So what went wrong?

Who knows? Sometimes creativity to a schedule doesn’t work, it’s as simple as that. It’s not the time put in, it’s the quality of what is achieved.

Once the book was finished in its initial show-someone-this-draft form, I knew something was not right, but couldn’t put my finger on what exactly. The two initial readers – Karen Miller and my editor friend and neighbour Alena — took a look and applied tough love. Basically: Glenda, the beginning is ALL WRONG.

They were so right. I had to do more than the usual spruce up: I had to rewrite the entire beginning, 30,000 words, and start in a different place with different characters. And then dovetail that to the rest of the book, which is harder than it sounds. Sort of writing something backwards. The way I had written in initially simply didn’t push the story forward, but kept looking backwards.

Anyway, it is re-written now, and my editors are happy. Publication dates will be next year sometime. When they are definite, I will tell you.

Oh, and I have seen the cover art for the Voyager Oz edition. And no, I am not showing you, yet.
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Sent off the MS to two publishers and agent. Stormlord’s Exile is at the moment a few thousand words shorter than the other two.

Now the nail-biting begins. Will they shriek in despair and tell me start all over again??

Am still polishing while awaiting input, which might be several weeks away yet.

And I am looking around to decide what I should do with my supposedly spare time. Answer emails? Revamp my website? Clean the house? Wash the windows? Get my business files in order? Start the next book? Catch up on some reading? Catch up on socialising? Sleep? Exercise? Take some more photos of Four-Lined Tree Frogs that sit on my clothes line and periodically scare the bejeezus out of me by plonking dinner plate feet on my face or skull?

Actually, he’s small enough to sit on the palm of my hand, and last night he was sitting on the veranda basking in the sunset light, hence the lovely gold colour. And he has the most glorious bronze eyelids that no photo does justice to.

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You may note that I have brought the goalpost a little closer…The first draft looks like coming in a little less lengthy than I anticipated. Books one and two were pretty much the same length, a shade over 180,000 words. I suspect this one in its final version is going to be about 10,000 words shorter than 1 and 2.

I am not one of those authors who necessarily gets wordier and wordier as the series progresses. The book length has to fit the story, and this one looks like being around 170,000 or a little more.

So, one more chapter to do! I am still maintaining a steady 2,000 words a day.

Hard at work!! (as the morning wore on, another three people came…)

On Saturday morning we had a write in at a coffee shop in Bangsar. Good fun to meet fellow NaNoWriMo folk. Most of whom did more writing than me… I was too busy making everyone’s aquaintance. Still, managed 1,000 words in spite of the chatting.

I have not quite made my 2000 words a day goal. If I had, I would now be on 18,000 as day 9 comes to a close. Instead I am on 16,444 words – which is still above what is needed for the NaNoWriMo target of 50,000. But my target is 60,000 words. Minimum. Got to work harder!!

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