The Challenge

I haven't posted anything since Thursday. I wasn't in the mood Friday morning, and Friday afternoon was my Day of Reckoning regarding my query for Swords of Fire: Flames of Hatred. To put it mildly: ouch.

I have longer to go than I anticipated. Query writing is just not my cup of tea. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to drink it often if anything I write is to ever be published.

Except the query is not the biggest of my problems. I have to rewrite. Again. Which version will this be? Fortieth? Fiftieth? I don't know. I've lost count. I've also lost some of the earliest manuscripts. It's just as well. After all I was told on Evil Editor's blog I had to go look at some of those early writings just to confirm I am writing better than before. I came across a version from the early 1980s. (I do not think any writings from the 1970s survive. Perhaps I'll do a search. That's as good an excuse as any not to write.) In any case, embarassed as I was to read my writing style of twenty-five years ago, I was pleased to know I do not write like that today. I have improved. Have I improved enough? It doesn't look like it.

What I am confronted with is a drastic reduction in SIZE. Apparently, and as I consider it, it makes sense, NO publisher, agent, whoever, is going to invenst the kind of money required to put out a 200,000 word book for an author nobody has heard of. That's like me betting everything I have on a single shot in the dark - with my eyes closed and no idea of which direction the target lays. It's a pity, though. All the work to get things in order. Emotionally, it feels like it was for nothing now. Will these stories even be the same? Historically, my rewrites to reduce have resulted in drastic changes to storylines. Characters disappear. Shoot. Abandoning White King of Ladondo meant losing an entire world. Well, this is what I've got before me:

Book I: Flames of Hatred -Family caravans are being attacked. So far no one has been killed, but how is it roaming bandits know when and where to attack? Khirsha, trying to pull a prank on his younger cousins, may have just stumbled on the reason: Prince Johahnan, of the nearby Kingdom of Azua, and his guard are in family lands posed as a common soldiers under the pretense of bringing aid. But how does Prince Johahnen know when the family caravans are scheduled? The attacks have put pressure on Khirsha's grandfather, who is Head-of-Family, to resign and allow someone who can to stop these attacks. Johahnen would love to see that happen. It would open the way for him to take control of Fire Mountain, from which the family's flameswords are made. Others are investigating, but it is Khirsha who finally puts the pieces together and identifies the traitor. Can he return to the Compound and warn his grandfather before the traitor kills him. It doesn't seem likely. 190,000 words

Book II: Prophecies of Madatar - Kelso and the triplets have gone through the Window with flameswords and are now trapped in another world. To make matters worse, they have been gone long enough for the Window's curse to take hold, removing their memory of their home world. Khirsha is chosen to go through the Window himself and take back the flameswords. Older warriors fare worse against the curse than younger. Can he track down his cousins and retrieve the weapons before the curse takes him, too? How can he take the weapons if his cousins do not remember him? They will fight. The triplets do not concern him, but Kelso. does. Not only does Khirhsa love him as a brother, but he has never been able to beat Kelso whenever they fought. 180,000 words

Book III: Bonds of Love - The Warlord Shatahar is coming to Senvewhah to destroy Madatar and his people. Mishua and Elden have returned to prepare the Elves and Ceres for departure, but something is wrong with Mishua. She is acting deranged. Khirhsa, awakens on Grenville's Isle to learn his family on Azua is in grave danger. A new force from Shatahar is preparing an assault them and they are not prepared. He has to find a way to send word. He can't go himself. He must enlist the help of the Figgit fleet to get the Elves and Ceres off Senvewhah, where Shatahar himself is heading to kill them all. But the Figgits demand a price for their help: Khirsha must take his flamesword and kill the terror which threatens them.

Book IV: Out of the Shadows - Khirhsa is taking a great risk. Instead of taking the Elves and Ceres to the world assigned to them by Lord Kensington, the Great Sea's Regent, Khirsha is bringing them to Azua to help fight off Shatahar's forces and save his family. What will the Cere and Elf kings do when they learn what he has done? And will they be in time anyway? - no word count at this time / 50,000 words written

Book V: Madatar's Choice - Khirsha's acclamations fade quickly as the thousands of Ceres and Elves realize they only have a short time to prepare for winter, which would not have been the case had Khirsha brought them to the world already prepared. Khirsha's family is also angry. True, he has saved them from the Warlords Irvahn and Geomahn, but he has also stressed their resources by adding thousands to a community only suited to support hundreds. - no word count / 0 words written

Book VI: The Way Home - When a new cave is exposed in the heights of Fire Mountain Khirsha and his company are chosen to investigate it. What they learn is that opening this cave they may have just given the Warlord Shatahar what he needs to launch a new assault on Madatar's people. How long can a small company hold off the forces of shadow which seek to pass them? - no word count / 0 words written

Tavaar's Story: The Chronicles of Tavaar, from birth to the year 340. - 500,000 words

With the exception of Tavaar's Story, each of these books must be reduced to 100,000 words or less. Good luck, Ducky.