Hi, thank you so very much for the detailed response!
Status update today: Chapter Set 11 is in the can.
Starting into the draft of 12 main tomorrow.
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Iām really impressed with how open you are about the development of SOTM. Itās obvious how much time you spend in planning and development - does it drive you bonkers to hear other authors talk about how they just discover the story as they go and wonder how they can do that?
I guess Iāve got some ebooks to start buying to get rolling on this rave-reviewed series and make sure to help keep your cats in kibble for the next year!
Thanks for your efforts in keeping the audience āin the loopā all the way through and congrats on nearing the home stretch!
Thanks for the update Janny. Knowing roughly how many draft pages are to go, would you have any idea of how many chapters SotM will have?
Oh Janny, that would be so wonderful. I donāt think I could bear it not to hear more about Athera!
Best wishes
Julia
Hi Janny! Iāve read everything, and loved it all. I canāt wait for the final book.
A little off topic, I was wondering if you would consider re-releasing Stormed Fortress through Grim Oak Press, since it didnāt get published in hardcover, and Iām missing it on the shelf with my other hardcovers in the series?
I have everything except Sorcererās Legacy in physical and audio. Iām a big fan and have been with the series since Mistwraith came out. I love your work, and canāt wait for my Daughter of the Empire to be published and shipped. (Also, Iād love Sorcererās Legacy and the Cycle of Fire in hardcover).
Thank you for everything you do, your awesome and have gotten me through a lot, not just 2020.
Welcome, Joseph! Janny talked about the prerequisites for a Stormed Fortress hardcover edition in this thread.
I tried (admittedly years ago) to ārevertā the hardcover rights they had not used to open the way for doing a special edition. Got the NO.
Itās the same old story: numbers talk, and frankly, relative to other series, we donāt have them right now. Many series get āanniversaryā editions - Wars of Light and Shadows would be in itās āThirtiethā anniversary (based on pub date for Curse of the Mistwraith) in 2023ā¦if we could break the piggy bank in the numbers department, anything is possible. Best I can do is write the best finale I can to make this happen. Without the books being featured in shops ā the series is invisible except by word of mouth. That pretty much handcuffs me, since self promo burns out readers faster than anything.
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Hi janny, I really really do not understand how your books are not the most popular books for sale. This continually amazes and disappoints me. The world and characters you have created are so vivid and entertaining. I will continue to spread how good they are as much as I can. Please keep creating!!
I am so excited to slowly be nearing the time where the last book in the series is released. For thirty years now I have started the series from the beginning each time another book was published, and each time an extra book added meant that I was given more and more hours of joy when re-visiting a world and characters that have become like family. Thank you and God Bless. Oh, one more thing. Congratulations on your new President. Iām in Brisbane, Australia but even here the relief is felt.
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I have been incommunicado, I know - intensely focused on writing as the critical finale sequence rolls on. There are lot - a whole lot - of intersecting details that Iāve needed to cross check, and passages to work over to be certain no tiny bit gets left out. Work is going extremely well, but it is carefully slow.
I will be posting a page countdown as I go, when I can. (Note: I do not have the internet connected when I write, period, to avoid distractions, so just checking in here is an infrequent and deliberate effort/to keep me fiercely on track).
I have crossed the 800 page mark - todayās draft count is (precisely) 817/undergoing a slight slow down due to a scene shift/and tightening up continuity issues for what will follow so the stitches are all laid in place.
Target for a finished draft of a Light and Shadows novel is always 1000 pages (before I do the melt down on the language/tighten up for a finished manuscript)ā¦some run over this, some run under, so donāt take this as a āfixedā progress bar - letās see in āreal timeā if I can grant you a view of each increment of actual progress.
Note: at this stage of the writing I have some chapter files opened up/with āplaceholderā notes typed in where Iāve recorded fragments and bits that occurred out of sequence into chronological order so I donāt omit those bits of inspiration as I compose the draft for those sections. These āpagesā are not included in the draft count given to date.
The current scene being written is the latter half of sub chapter 12a.
Here we goā¦
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Thanks for the update Janny.
Out of curiosity how many draft pages was Perilās Gate on the first draft?
Whew, I feel brain milled, like finishing an SAT.
Yesterday/lost part to shopping for food/tweaked a few details, letting the undone bits gel.
Today - surge forward. Crude draft of 12a completed at 20 pages, which sets the to the instant page count at 822. This is a very good day.
The draft for this section will need refinement and tweaking before I am satisfied to send it for test/I have sketched notes typed into the file for 12b. Tomorrow could be a tweak day, or may launch a tentative push into the opening bits of 12b. Or both.
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Two twelve hour days, back to back.
I did a little touch up on the final scene in subchapter 12a, with more left to go.
Plunged ahead into 12b, with two three page days (and notes ticking off bits to come/with a few defined fragments). That stacks the draft up to 828.
If this seems slow, yesā¦there are, in this section, multiple events that are linked in reaction and occurring in simultaneityā¦so I have to play them one into the next/to make a ālinearā read, thereās a fussy bit of care being taken with the order in which theyāre presented.
Forgot to answer Annetteās question: the draft for Perilās Gate ran somewhere into the neighborhood of 1200, or, that may have been the final version (itās been awhile to remember precisely). Longest draft ever was Ships/Warhost in original form (as one volume) - that one ran 1600 pages, but, not being in the league of Jordanās numbers, the publisher chose to split itā¦hence, you got that installment in two volumes.
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Thanks for the update Janny, and the info. I will still sit here and hope for a nice thick Song of the Mysteries to finish the series off. No harm hoping.
The book will be only as long as the story demands. It will not be shorter, or longer, but only the length it requires to strike all the right notes.
Size can, in fact, work against it - bloat makes the plot drag, and worse, eats the profit margin the publisher requires to maintain operationā¦one of the āstrikesā against this series has been: that required margin is way harder to meetā¦
Status Update: todayās draft count is 831/with some ārevision workā also accomplished in the raw bits that need to be smoothed before test readers see it.
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Janny hasnāt been able to get to the forum as often as sheād like recently, but here is an update from her Twitter feed:
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Into Chapter Set 13 now, with about 140 pages draft to target length at finish/860 pages in the rearview mirror.
A few announcements:
Voting for the toplist favorite books at r/fantasy closes Tuesday, your chance to get your ten favorites on the list!!!
I will also be doing an AMA tomorrow - get your questions in and I will answer - the post goes up in the morning Eastern Time/I return at 7 PM to start answering/all late entries will be accommodated.
Master of Whitestormās e book is ON SALE today in the USA and Canada.
Now I go back to (hair pulling) writing on of THE peak moments in Song of the Mysteries.
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Thanks for the update Janny, I missed the AMA but read through some of it.
Is āpeakā a clue?
Janny has left an update on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/JannyWurts/status/1408562693196288002
Another update on how Song of the Mysteries is progressing.
https://twitter.com/JannyWurts/status/1410768922928992256
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