Hello everyone.

I had a chance to add some action to my sequel a couple of weeks ago and again today. It feels good to be getting somewhere at last after a long time in the wilderness agonising about the plot and where it was going. Now I’m back in the flow again, throwing Paul Armstrong into situation after situation. I’m enjoying HIS story again, which is a big relief considering he’s the main character. For some time, I was enjoying his Dad’s story a lot more. A Thousand White Fragments is just that; bits and pieces. After the first book, I wanted to split things up and show other points of view. I wanted to let people see beyond Paul. That’s brought a bit of difficulty to the storytelling process. I’m really hoping the result is exciting for readers though, and doesn’t feel disjointed.

Anyway, the word count has crept up now to 59,000 words. That puts me about 30,000 away. I make that about 30 solid writing hours to go (that’s hours where everything is clicking as opposed to hours sitting waiting for things to click). There’s a shadow of a chance I might be done by the summer, and a good chance I’ll be done by the end of it.

59,000 feels like a damn good place to be given how long it’s taken me to get there. As usual, this story takes me places that I don’t expect. The latest thing I had to learn about was the brachial artery. It’s fun having to find stuff out to make sure things are as true to life as they can be. Adding detail is one of my favourite parts of the whole process.

It’s not at the top though.

At the top is when things happen that you didn’t expect. That happened today. The picture is a clue.

Anyway. Another chance coming up to add a big chunk of the remainder at the end of the month. I should get to bring a strand of the plot to a close and set up for the final push.

Look forward to updating you at the end of the month.

All the best,

Richard