Hi all,

Just a quick one to give you an update on what I’ve been up to with this and where things stand as I realise all I’ve been putting up over the summer is poetry. Sometimes that’s just the place I’m in.

So, ‘A Thousand White Fragments’ is slowly nearing its conclusion. I had a couple of hours to work on it this afternoon but only ended up adding 169 words. In reality, I probably wrote more than that but there were some things I had to delete as part of the deal. , The word count stands at 70,000.

I wrote loads of this ages ago and since then I’ve changed and added some plot elements that meant what I had written no longer fit the story. The way I figure it, I have 8 chapters left to write – about 18500 words. I spent the rest of the time I had working on the remaining chapters and figuring out exactly how I’m going to make them a reality.

I must admit, this second book has been a real struggle at times. It’s coming together but I really had doubts at points that it was going to work. It’s a very different story to the first. The first one kind of wrote itself as I knew what had to happen and where it was all leading. This time, I have had to balance the need for various different voices and perspectives on things, several different storylines and the requirement to remember everything that happened in Book 1.

Anyway, that’s where I am. 8 chapters! Once I’m done, there are some things I need to sort out; chapters I ned to change to 1st person, and I need to have a full read through and make sure the story makes sense, then I’ll be looking for some people to read the first draft and give me some feedback. I’m hoping to have all this done by February, so watch out for more updates around then.

In the meantime, thanks for your patience. I promise you its an exciting ride that you’re in for. Nothing is certain, no-one is safe and life on the Ardenna (and back on Earth) is full of surprises.

All the best,

Richard