The Iron Jackal is finished. And by finished, I mean it’s halfway done. Now comes the editing, trimming, sending to my editor and agent, and the mildly nervous wait to find out if it’s any good. And after that, more editing, honing and polishing, until I’m thoroughly sick of it. Those of you that have been following this blog will know that this was one of those, erm, testing books like The Fade and The Weavers Of Saramyr before it that took about twice as long as I thought they would. Fans of value for money will also be pleased to know that it currently hefts in at 175,000 words of lean white meat (Ret Falls was about 140, Black Lung was 160), which isn’t bad since I started the rewrite in August. Likely it’ll lose a bit from that by the time I’m done.
Soon will come the first read-through and the chopping and the scrutinising and all of that. But damn, just for today, does it ever feel good to write that final line. It fact, it feels a little bit like this.
