Way back in 2014, I started a short story called ‘Black Fire’ for my collection of shorts, The Fingers of the Colossus.
It began with a line that stuck with me: “Of all the mages, Huldrych was, by far, the least respected.” Well, today, those 11 words grew to 117,795 words and the first draft of White Fire is complete.
It’s my longest novel by a good distance – in fact, the original 10,000-word short story is included as a prologue within this book, but even if you left that out, White Fire would be my longest book. It’s been a fun ride. Fantasy (epic or otherwise) has arguably been my favorite genre since childhood. LOTR was my gateway drug, and of course, that means that I love a good fantasy novel map. I made a map myself for this novel, though in respect to the ones I have loved in other novels, I am strongly considering having my map redone by an artist to make it awesome-er. (That is not an official word; it’s fine.)
The book certainly isn’t done. I have a laundry list of fixes and embellishments I already know I want to make. I just didn’t want to impede progress by constantly fiddling with the earlier parts. Plus, there’s the aforementioned map, cover design, editing, proofreading, beta reading… Oh, and did I mention that I might not self-publish this one? Yeah, I am thinking of shopping it to agents. I am toughening my skin right now for all the rejection I’m about to get.
Anyway, those rejections are out of my control. Now I can go back, read the whole thing from the start and make the corrections I know are needed. The rest happens after that. But of course, if anyone knows an HBO exec looking for their next show once GoT ends, my phone is charged and ready.
Cheers,
K.