The first draft of Novice of Thanatos is complete!

It’s a moment of triumph! I’ve added another book to my literary journey’s short stack. As I kept my head down, immersed in the writing of the Novice of Thanatos, I glanced up and suddenly found myself at the peak. I was holding the first draft of the book, shocked. Is the Novice of Thanatos ready for the shelves? Not yet. It will undergo several rounds of revisions and edits. However, the essence of the story is there, and I’m already thrilled with the outcome.

I seem to always be surprised to find myself at the end. For this one, I thought for sure I had ten thousand words left, but nope, it wanted to settle at roughly 90k, making it the shortest book I’ve ever written. This was somewhat by design after I realized the difficulty of traditionally publishing heavy tomes, so I’m glad I could keep the weight down. The book will grow and shrink in editing, but I imagine it will still roughly fall around the 90k mark. As I said in my last post, it was a good exercise for me, as few publishers will touch the 150k-word books I like to write. The Novice of Thanatos will be part of a trilogy, so there is plenty of the story to tell, but the bite of book one is complete, and now it is time to chew and savor (that is as far as I will carry that analogy 😉

The Novice of Thanatos will be my tenth completed novel and my seventh publishable work (there is also a half-dozen incomplete in a drawer someplace). I’ve created a strange and macabre tale that adds further depth to my Lucardian world and helps elucidate the enematic Order of Thanatos and the rise of the Red Cloths, which will become pivotal in my core series, Absolution of the Morning Star. Its main character, Mishal of Gaven Hill, is not a hero, as he aptly proclaims in the first chapter, but a simple monk who trips on the weave of fate to fall onto the world’s stage.

In this book, Lucardia tortures and bullies poor Mishal as he reaches up from the gloom and stink of Newpost’s slums and struggles to climb to the lofty temples of Thanatos. On his adventure, there is heartache, ghosts, murder, imprisonment, pain, hunger, wicked forests and even wickeder men, deep cold, witches, old gods, betrayal, and psychological anguish. Still, he finally escapes all these trials, and the book ends with him facing a long, clear road to Thanatos. The difficulty of his journey is far from over, but this book ends with a sigh of relief.

Finishing a book is always a joy, and I hope I will never get used to the thrill of writing ‘The End.’ Now, my favorite part of the writing process begins- the first read-through. I will add some spit and polish, and slowly, The Novice of Thanatos will become ready for the world. I can’t wait for you, my dear readers, to embark on this journey with me. You won’t be disappointed.

Cheers!