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My Bags are Packed for Ath-o’Lea

Diane Shadows in the Stone , , , , , , , ,

Today begins my journey into Ath-o’Lea. That’s the name of the fantasy world where my characters of Shadows in the Stone dwell. This journey contains about 130,000 words and 42 chapters. It spans twelve years and about 300 miles. I’ll travel by foot, waggon, magic portal and horseback. Along the way I’ll see a child born, loyal men killed, a kidnapping and a chase.

I’ll witness heated arguments, passionate moments, sword fights, emotional turmoil and both innocent and evil magic. My path will cross that of honourable men, dutiful women, innocent children, humans, thieves, murderers, dwarfs, lords, hauflins, troglodytes, lost souls and stubborn ponies.

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Shadows in the Stone Update

Diane Shadows in the Stone , , , , ,

Due to kicking myself in the butt a few weeks ago, I finally completed removing words which made my sentences passive from the Shadows in the Stone manuscript.

Grand Total: In 27 chapters, I eliminated 1,424 was, 292 were and 449 that words, reducing the overall word count by 2,837. On average, each chapter contained about 3,000 words, so in the end, it felt as if I eliminated an entire chapter. That’s incredible.

My hope is that after completing this exercise that I’ll think twice before ever using was, were and that words in my original drafts.

Today, I began Part II: The final edit before it goes to the editor stage. During this stage several other tasks take place, such as recording character names and making final name changes.

You can read about Part II on the Shadows in the Stone page. As always, a brief update on my progress appears in the right-hand column of every blog page below the book cover.