I’ve been avoiding this for weeks, but the rubber has just met the road. The time for games is over. The race is on. I’ve put it off by writing a lot of backstory, sorting out the Wingfeather family tree (this actually became pretty important in order to be sure I had my facts straight on some things), and having a long conversation about the book with my brother, who’s a fellow story nerd.
And finally today I made progress on chapter one of The Monster in the Hollows (a title I’ll probably change six times by the time it’s all written). By the end of the day I wrote about 1500 words, which didn’t meet my goal but ain’t too shabby, either. I’d have written even more if I hadn’t decided to scrap 1300 words and start over.
I’m going to try and sketch a picture for each chapter, the day I write the chapter, in the hopes that by the time the book is finished not only will I have illustrations I can use for the book but my drawing skills will have improved. (My ulterior motive is that I’ll improve enough to realize my high school dream of penciling Batman for DC Comics someday. Not really.)
So here’s my sketch for chapter one. Oh, and just to clarify: it’s not a tornado on the horizon. It’s smoke. To further clarify for you Lost followers, it’s not sentient smoke. It’s just plain old smoke.
So there I was, checking email late one night. I got one with a song attached, which isn’t out of the ordinary. The sender made a disclaimer, saying her friend heard this little song she wrote and told her she should email it to me. It’s not a finished song or anything, she said. Just something funny and dreamy she came up with on the fly after reading On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness.
