It has begun.

I knew it would happen. When I finally held the paperback copy of Gart's Road in my hands, there was a massive sense of satisfaction, of completion. It was the culmination of 16 months of diligent work, and it felt solid and wonderful. Done. Happy sigh. Even then, I knew it was coming.

It's been a little more than two weeks since GR hit the shelves, and apparently, that's about all I can handle. The urge to write is back, yes it is. It's not the intense 'I'vegottogettomylaptoprightthisinstant' compulsion that hits me sometimes, but the next part of the story is definitely making itself known. What else can I do? Gotta write that stuff down. I've noticed something, though.

The outline I work from is over two decades old. For the first two books, I pretty much followed the storyline as I orignially wrote it out. It felt right, and has worked out well so far. This last part, though, it's different. When I look at the last part of the outline (Book 3), it just feels...I don't know...foggy. I have a strong sense that this book may end up in entirely different places than I originally visualized, and that is both exciting and terrifying for me. I've been following a map for twenty years and I feel as though I've just crested a mountain, looked at the terrain ahead of me, consulted my old map, and found that the land ahead looks nothing whatsoever like the map in my hand. There are lakes where deserts should be, ice caves instead of sandy beaches, and who knows what creatures or people inhabit those uncharted areas? At this point, I know far less about this next book than I had first thought. My map feels uncomfortably inaccurate and incomplete. I may have to draw a new one.

This could be fun.

I'll keep you posted.

Oh, and here's an early sketch of Alyssa, the healer. More on the way.