Looking back over my 'personal' author notes from when I started writing this darned epic ( well, it feels like an epic to me!) I realise just how much 'effort' i have put into this story. It has been a hard slog at times, in fact an unbelievably hard slog. but I hope it has been worth it. What I HAVE learned is that it is dead easy to churn out a chapter a day...especially if you don't give a damn about the quality of your work.
I could have finished Shepherd ( and probably added another 30K words to it) if I had not really cared about gettting the characters the way I wanted them. Rebecca was not easy, and neither was Paul, or Jackson. Miss Ealand was extraordinarily difficult. But I hope that I got her right, so that, when you eventually 'read' her you can hear her voice in your mind.
Straker was, as always, Straker. And I hope that he doesn't decide to visit me anytime soon for a quick conversation!
Anyway, if you are following Shepherd on the Herald , (and I know a lot of you are doing!) part 2 ( Hefted) is about to come to an end. But there are at least another 75K words to come. The story is far from finished!
And afterwards? When I have written that last sentence? Well, I will do as I did when I completed 'Glitch in the Machine' . I will buy myself a piece of jewellery to celebrate. I have seen exactly the right thing as well. And then I will put Shepherd away and carry on writing.
Shepherd 1 and 2 are now on this site, but you need to confirm your 'adult' status to access them. It means that you have to go through a couple of extra pages first, but the stories do have some adult content and are tagged as well.
Anyway. Shepherd 3. Drafted... should be up on the Herald soon!