… and an excerpt, of course, but we’ll get to that later 🙂

After the quiet Christmas break I’ve managed to do a lot of editing this week and catch up again. Turns out I didn’t jinx it last week!

I’ve got a couple of things I’d like to mention this week, but let’s start with the most important point:

EditUpdate

I reached the halfway point yesterday, so the majority of changes have been applied to my draft now! I’ll do a bit more today and then next week I can apply the rest as well as rewrite the prologue and first chapter, and make a start on the couple of chapters I want to add. It’s all looking promising time-wise, so I’m still on for a publishing date in May!! I think. It’s hard to judge things you haven’t done before.

Just as with the first revision things are going much faster again past the first third, so good progress is being made.

Or it was until earlier this week when I suddenly realized that I had this huge paradox in the plot, making a bunch of it impossible. I think I’ve fixed it now.

Fingers crossed.

MascotUpdate

The Mascot has been hard at work again as well this week, walking over the desk, sitting on the draft and general getting in the way in as cute a way as possible. She was very persistent this week but somehow I got things done.

Now, before Christmas I mentioned that I was working on the world map. The map you’ve seen before only shows you one country but the place is bigger than that, of course, and while Rachael doesn’t leave Rifarne in Rise of the Sparrows some of the other places will still get mentioned sometimes.

It’s not complete yet (for example the ocean around Al’Zahir still needs a name) but here’s what I’ve got so far:

WorldMap_Unfinished

You’ll probably have to click on it to make it larger, if you want to see details.

I’m not ready yet to get this map done professionally since I don’t know all the important places and sights yet, but at some point later this year I’ll get it done. This map won’t be included until Book 2 anyway, so I’ve got time.

On to other things! You might remember me saying before that I’ve had some other ideas for novels or stories or whatever they might turn into. Two of those ideas are sci-fi and I’ll start exploring both properly this weekend. I really want to know what you think of both, so I’ll publish three posts for each over the coming weeks. Possibly starting next week, we’ll see 🙂

Now! The excerpt. It’s a little bigger this week, enjoy! 😉

‘We started with two hundred Sparrows. Out of those-‘

‘Two hundred!’ Rachael hated herself for interrupting but she couldn’t help herself.Two hundred was a tiny number compared to the army King Aeric commanded. They could not hope to win this was with such a small amount. No knowledge of warfare was necessary to know that.

A sad look in her eyes, Ailis nodded. ‘Yes, no more. It’s difficult to find people like you and Cephy. The vast majority we tracked down are too terrified to stand in this war, openly admitting that they have magic. They have managed to hide so far, but if the White Guard caught as much as their names or a hint about their location they would be hunted down mercilessly. They are good people, Rachael. They have never hurt anyone in their lives.’

Rachael found herself reaching out to the shaking woman, and took her hand into hers. She knew the truth of Ailis’ words only too well herself, but it was obvious that something personal was in her past, too. ‘I’m sorry.’

—————–

All content belongs to the author, Sarina Langer.

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