I spent most of last week writing a looooong chapter about JT. Some of it was taken from the most recent draft, but not as much as I’d like. Originally, I said this was going to make another trip across the keyboard. And for about 70% of the manuscript thus far, that’s true. But 10,000 words? That’s a tenth of the novel, though it does cover a lot of the events on Hanar (formerly Gilead).
Duffy is finally coming into his own as a character. His first chapter had him largely as an observer, and I spent a lot of time taking dialog from JT and putting it in Duffy’s mouth. Or rewriting scenes from Duffy’s point of view.
The other challenge is Chapaan. It doesn’t take a lot to figure out her true identity, and anyone who will read the serialized Among Wolves will know who she is. I’m currently working on her second chapter and she makes references to characters she’s known. So how spoilery am I getting?
I look at it this way. If all you read are the first two Amargosa novels, it won’t be a spoiler but a hint. If you read the entire series, you’ll likely get impatient with me to get her to reveal herself.
So once I finish Chapaan’s chapter, I have one more round of chapters surrounding the meddling kids. Then we get into the whole purpose of this novel:
Space battles!