First draft complete!

After almost exactly 12 weeks of writing, I'm pleased to say that the first draft of the manuscript I'm currently calling The Punishments of Talon is complete. It clocks in at right around 115,000 words, which I expect to expand by a good 5,000 to 10,000 more by the time I've completed revisions and additions.

I'm quite happy with how the story turned out. It is the first book in a series tentatively titled Slaying the Overlord which I expect to be either 3 or 4 books when complete. The book is entirely disconnected from my prior works, but if you liked them I suspect you will like these as well.

Starting with City of the Lords I've started keeping track of how long it takes me to complete each step of a manuscript. Some interesting statistics about the first draft for those who enjoy such things: It was written in 56 separate writing sessions at a total time of about 47 hours and 40 minutes. I averaged almost exactly 2000 words per session at an average of about 51 minutes each.

Now it's on to a first pass of editing, then I'll print it out and make notes by hand. Plenty more work to do but it's enormously satisfying to look at the manuscript and know that the core of the story is entirely in place.