We interupt our regularly scheduled lack of programming on this blog to let you know that it’s almost time for National Novel Writing Month. This year I’ve decided to give it a go. I’ll try and give regular updates on my progress.

I know what you’re thinking. This should be a walk in the park for you, Bill. You’re a professional novelist with all the time in the world on your hands. If you can’t do a 50000 word rough draft in a month you should be ashamed of yourself.

Normally I would kinda sorta agree with you. Fortunately for purposes of narrative tension, Mother Nature has taken a hand. My efforts to be the poster boy for bad ergonomics have finally paid off. This last week all my hunching over the laptop was rewarded. Attacks of dizziness and a numbness in my right arm let me know my RSI is working overtime. Work has slowed to a crawl and I’ve been forced to take time away from my desk.

I had intended to stride manfully into NaNoWriMo with a detailed outline for the book. That’s been thrown out the window due to health issues. Instead I’ll be forced to rely on my waypoint method. This does fit neatly with having just over four weeks to write the book. I’ll aim to hit one waypoint at the end of each week.

I’m not flying entirely blind here. The book will be my ninth (how did that happen!) Kormak novel. It’s the third part of a trilogy. The first part is written and the second part is 75% complete. These have tossed up a bunch of questions which will need to be answered.

Will the deadly assassin stalking Kormak succeed? Will our hero uncover who was behind the attempt on the life of Aemon, the saintly but sinister king of Siderea? What will he find when he reaches the origin point of the awesomely powerful supernatural sentient bio-weapon he fought back in Book Seven?

I have some basics for a plot right there. When I was writing Gotrek and Felix such things took on a momentum of their own, and I’m hoping that the same thing will happen here.

I have some ideas for the setting too. Terra Nova is a medieval magical version of Conquistador Mexico, complete with Robert E Howard/ A E Merrit style decadent lost cities.

I even have a few characters. There’s Kormak himself, of course. The lovely merwoman Rhiana and the bounty hunting Captain Zamara have survived four books alongside the veteran monster hunter. The question is whether they will live through this one since it’s the end of a big plot arc.

I’ll be finishing the second book in this sequence and editing the first as I attempt NaNoWriMo. I’ve got a visit to Scotland in the middle of the month as an additional distraction. I’ll also be spending my usual two days a week chasing my hyper-active toddler around the flat. It’s not going to be a cakewalk.

Will I make it? Stay tuned!

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