End of the Reading Slump

I finally picked up a book again. I don't know what causes my reading slumps, but they occur from time to time. I don't think I've read a book for months. And I have a pile waiting on the Kindle, so it isn't for a lack of material.

I started with a book that I've been meaning to read for awhile. Unfortunately, I was underwhelmed. I finished it, mostly just to see where it was going. There wasn't enough conflict. The characters enter difficult situations and the problems unravel much too easily. But I was curious enough about where it was heading, so I got book 2, which was a mistake.

Along with a lack of conflict, book 2 veers off into romance. There was much too much pining for my taste. And a total clash with the straight up epic fantasy of the first book. Needless to say, I will not be reading book 3.

The main problem here is the contradiction of reader expectations. When I pick up a book billed as epic fantasy, I'm looking for certain things like good world building, non-human species, maybe some magic, a journey, possibly a quest. I think most readers would agree that subsequent books in the series should remain consistent in those elements. A little romance thrown in as a subplot is fine as long as it doesn't hijack the story.

Mashing genres together can be fun. I like Alex Bledsoe's Eddie LaCrosse series that is medieval noir. He's a sword-toting gumshoe on horseback. But that's in the blurb and I was ready for it. It also remains consistent book to book.

There's lots of fantasy-romance in all the subgenres. That just isn't my cup of tea. Neither are military sci-fi or zombie books. It's not even apples and oranges, because they're both fruit and really can be substituted one for the other. It's more like apples and octopus. Some people love it, some don't. So don't offer them an apple and then serve up octopus.

Readers Block Again

I haven't been able to read lately. I could blame it on stress and insomnia, but I'm not sure if they are the actual culprits.

Nothing appeals. All my favorites are no longer enticing. I've been loading the Kindle up but not reading anything. I've started a couple but lost interest. I can't decide if the books need work or it's just my brain right now.

I have always been a voracious reader. We hit the library on a regular basis in my childhood. I would take out the max - 6 books, I think - every visit. Getting a library card was one of the first things I did whenever I moved. Now with cheap and free ebooks, I download a lot on to my Kindle. But I just haven't been reading.

My tastes have changed, but there are plenty of books out there in every genre and subgenre imaginable. And I have been happily sampling a handful of them, but nothing is really sucking me in right now.

Too many distractions lately I think. The work on the office has finally begun. I am so excited about that! My own work space! Woo hoo. I am finally going to get all of my junk into one place. I will be so organized. I hope. But the extra people in the house and power tools are not helping my ability to focus.

And the yard needs a ton of work. And I've had a bunch of small chores on my to-do list for months. And then there's that hurricane headed my way. Maybe while being stuck inside the for 4 days of torrential rain I'll pick up a book and find my way back.

The Bad Guy's Point of View

I started reading book 2 of a new series and gave up after a couple chapters. Book 1 was about the main character. Book 2 was building up the bad guys to set up an inevitable confrontation. I have discovered that most of the time I don't like reading about the bad guys.

A few years back while I was sampling new authors I found a book with a villain so vile that I quit reading immediately. I did not want to spend any time in that twisted person's mind. Nor did I want any description of the bloodbath he'd left behind. (shiver)

Maybe that's what makes first person books so popular - no foray into the mind of the antagonist?

Daniel Abraham's The Dagger and The Coin series has a wonderful antagonist who doesn't mean to be evil, he just makes really bad choices. I find that kind of bad guy fascinating. He's doing all the wrong things for the right reasons.

When an antagonist is over the top, I tend to skim those chapters, eager to get back to my favorite characters. It's a hard balance to create characters that are interesting and antithetical to one another. Too often authors cheat a little with a cardboard, cliche villain. I've been called on it a couple times by my beta readers (Thanks!). When I work a bit harder at figuring out who the bad guy is and what he really wants, it makes for a much better story.

But I don't like writing about them any more than reading about them. I tend to use the reaction of the characters I prefer, rather than the action of the antagonist.

She Killed My Favorite Character

Dang.

I won't give any spoilers, but a favorite author killed a favorite character and I found it very unsatisfying.

Sometimes characters need to die. I suppose this might be a good place for him to end, but I didn't like it. Part of it is because I didn't want that character to end. I would have been happy to keep reading his adventures until he was old and feeble. But part of it is the way he died. It was ugly and undeserving.

I feel let down by the author. I have been a loyal fan and wanted some sort of reward for that long suffering character. Instead she gave him a nasty death and a long maudlin goodbye. Didn't work for me.

I went back to read some reviews of that book, and to find others who felt the same way. One person made a list of inconsistencies in the story, and after seeing them, I agree. A few lessons to learn here as a writer. As a reader, I am just disappointed and wondering if I want to read whatever comes next.

Reading Out of the Comfort Zone

Every now and then I try to pick up new authors / stories / series.

As an author, looking for new readers, I hope this gives me some karma points. But it's also a way to expand my personal horizons.

As an experiment, sometimes it works out and sometimes meh. Since the explosion of Indies on the market, there are a lot more niches out there. Back in the stone age, when books were curated by publishers, the oddball niches were weeded out. Now there are so many I can't keep up.

I recently fell into a pile of magic/science fiction books. Wow. And very cool. I plan to work my way through them as Facade sort of falls into that category. I was trying to figure out some marketing when I discovered them. And as a treat, I get to read  all my competition. Although, not all of them are true comparables.

Having all these niches and sub-sub-categories can get very confusing. I look at the books listed and sometimes they don't fit at all. That could be authors squeezing their book into a more popular category for better discovery. But that's a bad idea, because if I want a magic / science fiction book and they give me space marines, I'm not going to be happy.

So I am still experimenting with the marketing. Still learning new things all the time. And this time, I get to enjoy myself along the way.

If You've Read It, Please Review It

That's a request for all readers and all books by any author.

Reviews are so important for an Indie author. Aside from letting other readers know how you felt about the book, it creates a benchmark for advertising.

There are some advertisers that use the number of reviews as a cutoff point. Since they are inundated daily with authors signing up their books, they need a simple rule of thumb to cut down on the sludge. My mysteries are well liked, but lack reviews, so they aren't admissible. As a result, I can't use a lot of the better advertisers. So they don't get a lot of notice.

So if you like a book, leave a review. It's important!

Naomi Novik - My New Favorite Author

I don't remember where I read a review or recommendation of her book Uprooted. But it intrigued me enough to check it out. I liked her writing, enjoyed the book and went looking for more. That's when I discovered her dragon books.

The Temeraire series could probably be summed up as the Napoleonic Wars with dragons. But if I had read that, I wouldn't have tried it. Alternate histories are not something I read very often. The characters are the heart of the series and what has made me love it. There are battles and some interesting history along the way. (Not sure how much is true.)

I've been plowing through the series, book after book, quite gleefully. I discovered the other day that book 9 is the last book. I will be very curious to see how it is all wrapped up. Right now I am in the middle of book 6. I might need to slow down a little, now that I know it has an end.

Some of the books have more battles than others. I have to admit to skimming those parts a bit. Especially if my favorite characters aren't front and center.

The thing that constantly amazes me is the time it takes to travel or get news. A journey from England to Africa is said to take months. Letters can only travel as fast as a ship or a horse (or courier dragon!) can get them there. Moving troops and supplies and ships is an endeavor of weeks or months. Everything happens at a slower pace because it has to and plans must be drawn up a year in advance.

So if you're looking for a great dragon series, look her up.

Reader's Block

Argh! It's happened again, that dastardly reader's block.

I read a lot of books. Ever since I was a child, I've always carried around a book I was working my way through. I would get stacks of books out of the library knowing I would have read them all by the time they were due. My parents always had books, too.

But every now and then I get stuck. I'm just not ready to immerse myself in a new world. I'd rather play endless games of solitaire or surf the net. Maybe it's a lack of focus. Too much caffeine? Sunspots?

It's frustrating because I just got a gift card and I'm eager to load up the Kindle. I've started a new wishlist in Amazon called "Series Next". I've added all the next books in the many, many series I'm reading so I can easily find them. And it's a reminder of what/who all those series and authors are.

So now I can go to my "Series Next" list and decide which characters I want to visit. Fantasy? Science Fiction? Urban Fantasy? Mystery? Whichever I pick, I'll have to remember to add the next book (unless it isn't written yet) so I won't lose track.

I'm sure I've forgotten a couple of series. When I am reading I tend to plow through books pretty quickly. Especially if a series is complete. I should go through my Goodreads lists.

I did read a book last week. Killing Rites - book 3 in the Black Sun Series by M L N Hanover (Daniel Abraham). Normally I wouldn't pick up a book with a sexy female on the cover, but I love all of his other books, so I gave it a try. It's a funky kind of Urban Fantasy that immediately appealed to me. Despite the sexy pose on the cover, there is very little in the way of romance in the story line. Which is the way I prefer it. I'm eager to read book 4.

And maybe I just talked myself out of my block!

What's the Opposite of Grimdark?

I recently discovered a thread on the Kboards asking for recommendations of NobleBright, books that were basically the opposite of Grimdark.

Wonderful!

I am not a fan of Grimdark. It's too dark for me. That's just my personal taste in reading. It's obviously very popular with other folks because it's everywhere.  I thought I was bucking the trends by writing my lighter, happy-ending, good guys win stories. Turns out, there's a lot of us!

At some point, I will make a list of all the authors and recommendations on that thread so I can add their books to my To Be Read list. I wasn't surprised to find a few authors that I have already discovered chiming in. But it reminded me that I've forgotten about a couple of series that I'd like to get back to.

Lovely! More books that appeal to me.

In other news...
Today I was interviewed by a friend for her blog. She will be putting it up on Tuesday. I'll post a link to that because she asked me a lot of questions about A Changed World books.

Still waiting to hear from Kindle Scout.

The interview reminded me of some back story that I had intended to put in the new book and promptly forgot. So I need to go back and figure out where it might fit. Luckily I'm only about 1/3 of the way into the first draft.

Changing Tastes

Recently I was on a forum where people were talking about a young adult book. One person responded that he didn't read YA anymore because he was an adult now. I was ready to fire back an answer about how ridiculous that was, when I remember how much my tastes have changed over the years.

Once upon a time I bought an interesting book in a used book store. I went to the library for the sequel and discovered, to my horror, it was in the young adult section. I was embarrassed to be looking at those books and skulked away without checking one out.

Looking back, I can't imagine giving up on an interesting series because of the designated audience. I didn't have any trouble going into the children's section to get the Harry Potter books. But maybe it has to do with distance. In my 20's and 30's I didn't want to be seen reading books for teenagers. Now I don't care. I read whatever catches my fancy.

Back in my college and post-college days I read "serious" fiction, Camus, Kafka, and adored Ibsen's plays. I liked things that were dark and angsty. That doesn't appeal to me right now.

People change as they grow and so does their taste in entertainment. What I loved a decade ago doesn't always appeal to me now. But it may in another couple of years. Who knows? And genres change and grow sub-genres.

I say I like Urban Fantsy, but that's because I love Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden. That genre seems to have a lot of interpretations, some that don't appeal to me at all. On the other hand, I've said I lost my taste for Epic Fantasy, but I love Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive series and Brent Weeks' Lightbringer series and those are definitely epic.

Tastes change and maybe come back around again. I just know I like a well-told story regardless of who the intended audience is.

Not a Review

I just finished reading The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell and I need to chew on it for awhile. It is a well loved book by most readers and I am curious about what appeals to them.

This is a well researched book with too many battles for my taste. I guess that is one of the things that will appeal to other people. The world at that time, post-Roman Britain, is brutal and Cornwall describes it in painful detail.

World building is important for a fantasy book. I will say that his is extremely well done. The people are coarse, ignorant and superstitious. The politics are conniving and cruel. All in all, a world too dark for me to enjoy reading about.

This felt like more of a historical treatise than a novel. In that, I think my father would have enjoyed this book.

The things that poked at me, aside from the casual brutality of the time, were the thin characters. Everyone had one overriding characteristic that beats a monotonous drum. Perhaps because there are so many characters in the story, none of them can really expand or grow. None of them last long, because of the constant warring. Also the simplistic depiction of their Druids, hopping on one foot, throwing pebbles and spitting to curse or bless something. I felt that the author thought them foolish and held a certain contempt for all the religions presented.

I have to admit that I skimmed through the pages and pages of warriors hacking each other to pieces, the rapes and looting. It made me wonder how there are any of us left alive. And it made me realize that we have been fighting over land since the beginning of time. Both the Franks and the Saxons, in the novel, are killing off rivals for farmland and bringing in their own people in to settle those stolen parcels of land.

I prefer a character driven story. The narrator, Derfel, is barely visible in some scenes as he describes the action. He is the right-time, right-place kind of character that gets to see and hear everything of importance. But I hardly know him, other than he's good with a spear and will fight to death for his companions.

This is supposed to be a more historically correct account which tosses in some names I know in an completely different order. That sent my brain scrambling to try to sort out who was who and how they had been portrayed in other stories. I think that confused me enough to make me a little defensive while I read. Plus, the most disappointing part of all--no magic.

I won't be reading the rest of the series. As a historical writer, he's very skilled, but this story just doesn't appeal to me.

Booksick - like Homesick

I just finished the 2nd book of an unfinished trilogy and I am booksick for the next one!

There are authors whose worlds I slide into like greeting an old friend. So happy to be back there and mingle with the familiar characters. I know the countryside and who to be wary of. There are things that I can expect and surprises that will enrich this special world.

I gallop through the book eager to take it all in. And yet I measure the pages left wishing them to not dwindle. Even a distraction of a secondary character is okay as I follow that streamlet eager to see where it will blend into the river of the story.

I stay up too late and read through my lunch time. I cram every spare minute into devouring the book. But I don't want to get to the end.

When I turn the final page and fall out of the dream, I pine for the next. The characters follow me around for days suggesting where the plot might go. And I lie in bed at night and worry about them.

Thanks goodness I have so many new authors to turn to for consolation. But I can't leave the previous world just yet. I'm not done thinking about them.

Free Books for Honest Reviews - Story Cartel

I am experimenting with Story Cartel for Dark Deeds. It's a great set up for readers and authors. You can get any book on the site for free with the request that you give it an honest review.

You can get Dark Deeds HERE

Reviews are so important for authors. Not only do they help readers decide to purchase, they are a requirement for some advertising. A few of the better sites require a certain number of reviews at a certain average. For example - 5 reviews on Amazon with a 4.5 star average.

For new authors getting reviews is difficult. I have sold about 40 ebooks of Lethal Seasons and I have 1 review on Amazon. There are a few more reviews on other sites, but for some advertisers only Amazon counts.

I've had friends balk at giving a review. "I loved the book, but I don't know what to say."

It isn't a book report, so get that childhood trauma right out of your head. A rehashing of the plot isn't what people want to see. As a reader, I want to hear about pacing and characters. Other people notice different things. I once got a review that said my sentences were too short.

A few lines about how you feel about the story is best.

"A face-paced story that had me on the edge of my seat."
"The pace plodded and I lost track of the characters."
"Loved the hero in the beginning, but he turned out to be a wimp."
"The side-kicks were hilarious. I want to see more of them."

As an author, hearing feedback like that might influence my next book. I don't write for the critics that will give me a finely honed review on all the nuances (or lack there of) in the story. I write for people who tell me they love the characters and want to visit with them again.

My favorite review so far is only 2 words: "So good." I wish s/he'd written a bit more. It would be great to know which parts they liked best, or least. But I am thankful s/he took the time to write a comment.

The next time you finish a story, remember to review it where you bought it!

Looking back at 2014

Goodreads says that I read 19 books this year. I think I read more than that, but I've stopped reviewing the books I didn't like. I bought a couple of bundles this year that I still need to work my way through. But I also found some new favorite authors - Nathan Lowell, Chuck Wendig and Brian Staveley. I need to get back to reading more.

 

My computer died a horrible death in February and I bought a laptop to replace it. I was afraid that I would hate the keyboard, but luckily found one that is very comfortable. In fact, I think I type faster on it. So a happy ending there.

 

 

The garden did very well this year. Had a bumper crop of blueberries - almost 7lbs. I couldn't pick the last handful because of a yellow jacket nest under one bush. The veggie garden is now all raised beds. I think that's made a big difference. I'm still doing some rearranging, but I should have a couple more beds for next year.

 

I published Lethal Seasons in August. I sold a few copies. Buying ads does help sell the book. I started using a bit of marketing. And hopefully a few more people will hear about my books.

 

I've been working on Dark Deeds which will come out next month. In between, I've started rough drafts on Scattered Seeds with a May 2015 deadline.

 

Although I haven't sold many books this year, I managed to sell 3 times the number of the year before. A lovely increment, even though it's still miniscule.

 

 

In September, I went up to Kingston, NY to visit relatives and research my roots. All of my Irish relatives settled there. The photo is of the Hudson River from Rhinebeck, which is on the other side. Kingston is a working town. My ancestors worked in the shirt factory or the cigar factory, cutting bluestone for sidewalks, for the railroad or on the river. The next generation had some policeman, nurses and teachers. Kingston is still very much a working class town struggling to come out of the recession. It was very good to see that town and walk around it.



All in all a good year - travel, relatives, reading, writing and gardening. Here's hoping for to surpass it all in the coming year!

Catching up with myself

I say that all the time - I need to catch up with myself. I'm not sure where it is that I have gotten to that I am apparently not all there...hmm. And I just wasted 15 minutes looking for some clipart to jazz up this post. Needless to say, nothing caught my eye.

Dark Deeds is going out to the third and final round of readers today. Whew.

There will be a cover reveal for Dark Deeds on December 15. Alex Storer has done another amazing job. I love the cover. It is the perfect combination of dire events and absurdity that the Asher Blaine books have.

Because of a variety of things, mostly life, I've pushed back the publication date to the end of January. As things come together and I can be sure of a date, I'll post it.

While I am waiting on readers, I started laying down the bones of Scattered Seeds, book 2 in the Changed World Series. It was fun to get back to Wisp and Nick and Angus. I've got about 15 chapters down in a quick and dirty form. That's just to lay out the action. I'll go back to add description, tighten the dialog and sprinkle in the foreshadowing. It's coming along nicely. I can see where I want it to go, but I'm not sure where it'll end, yet.

Lethal Seasons got a short but sweet, 5-star review on Goodreads - "Soooooo good." Gotta say that made my day. So glad to see someone liked it!

I haven't done a book review in awhile. The last few books I've read haven't tickled my fancy, shall we say. One that I read started out fine but then went seriously downhill. It came in a Story Bundle so I don't feel bad about the money spent, there're other goodies to make up for it. I went on Goodreads to see what others were saying. There was already a review that perfectly echoed my own problems with the story. It was nice to see someone else had the same reaction.

I have a pile on the Kindle that I need to get to, but there are only so many hours in a day! I'm rearranging the garden again. Only this time it involves building a wall. So that is taking up time on good-weather days. The family tree stuff snuck out and hijacked me a couple weeks ago. Man that stuff is addicting. I've found a whole new passel of relatives and a bunch of new sites with info. Dangerous! Lost a lot of time to that over Thanksgiving holiday. Oh, and I'm writing two books at the same time.

Have I mentioned my insomnia?

And now I need to get back to writing!

My TBR Keeps Growing

When I started writing, I found an article by an agent that had the comment, "Don't tell me you started writing because there's nothing you want to read." But I did.

There was a time when my library and local bookstore did not cater to my tastes. This was before the internet and Amazon. I had trouble finding the fantasy and lite science fiction books that I wanted to read. I didn't realize that it was the fault of local gatekeepers. Or maybe the publishers just weren't interested in the type of story I was looking for.

I would go to the library and read through the science fiction section in alphabetical order. I tried a lot of writers that way. I enjoyed some, but not all of them. Of the few I loved, even fewer books were available.

Now I am hip deep. Not only do I have all my trad pub authors to keep track of, I have found a handful of self pub authors that I love reading. If I hadn't joined Goodreads I would have had to start making spreadsheets.

I get emails from Amazon and Goodreads whenever my favorite authors have published new books. I immediately put them on my Wish List. That means I can get rid of all those little stickys on my desk and calendar reminding me when a new book comes out. And I put them in my TBR list on Goodreads.

Now I'm at the other end of the spectrum - too many books to read. And I couldn't be happier.

Say It Three Times and It's Yours

I had a Spanish teacher in high school who used to say that. Unfortunately, it didn't work for me. My Spanish is horrendous. However, it does work in writing.

Recently I learned, again, that you need to reiterate things for the reader to absorb them. I described my character twice and still got complaints that readers didn't know what he looked like. So obviously I didn't do it well enough, or often enough for it to stick in the reader's brain.

Tagging the description of an attribute to a character seems to help.

His dark hair was tousled from sleep.
His blue eyes flashed with anger.
He lifted a beefy shoulder in a casual shrug.

My unusual looking character didn't get the same complaint. I mention the color of his eyes - pale blue - and his hair - white - repeatedly. Mostly out of the other characters' reactions to him, because he is an unknown quantity in the story.

It's hard to remember to describe characters because I know what they look like. And when I am laying down the bones of the story, plot takes priority. When I go back to fill in description, tone and world-building sometimes take priority. Then I forget to describe the characters.

Being a list-maker, I have a checklist for editing. Character description is on there. As is anything else that's important to the story. In Lethal Seasons the weather is important, so I made sure to mention it regularly.

Guess I need to pay better attention to my checklists.

Lethal Seasons will be going on sale later this month. Sign up for my newsletter to hear about sale dates and news of upcoming books.

Big as a Whale, Loud as Thunder

We are told, as writers, to create interesting metaphors and similes. Avoid clichés at all cost. But I think you can go overboard with that.

I just finished reading a novel that used way too many creative metaphors. At one point it threw me out of the story. I wished that the author said "big" or something similar. It felt too forced for all of the excessive descriptions that filled up the scene. I didn't need a metaphor. I was firmly in the world already.

That's the goal. To ground the reader in your world. If you say: "Her thoughts circled like gulls over a trawler." You reinforce a theme of sea, maybe fishing, boats, waves. If that helps remind the reader that your world is a small fishing village, it's icing on the authorial cake. But if it all feels that way:

"Her thoughts circled like gulls over a trawler. The air was colder than the winter sea in an artic blizzard. She staggered like a drunken sailor across the sand that stuck to her shoes like tar balls thrown up in the ever-churning waves." It slows the action. Even worse, it distracts the reader.

Writing is like painting, you need to concentrate on the focal point. If the entire image is equally embellished, the image becomes bland. In art they talk about negative space. The space outside the image that defines it. So you put emphasis on the dew drop on the pear in the still life and let the plate blur slightly. Unless you want to point out the plate. Then you can blur the fruit. But if everything is clamoring for your attention, you see nothing.

In writing, if you emphasize everything, the reader gets confused. I read a chapter from a work in progress that had the life story of a waiter in it. When I asked what relation he had to the story, the answer was - none. So why did I just spend my time learning all about this guy? Didn't push the plot forward, didn't enhance my understanding of the world, didn't affect the main characters at all. It was an odd little vignette that the writer had come up with for no apparent reason.

That's the way I felt about some of the metaphors in the book I read. They distracted more than they informed. In a couple of cases I would have preferred a plan old adjective like big. Sometimes simple is better.

Tired of Megalomaniacs and other thoughts

I read all sorts of books. I like character driven ones the most. I used to say that I liked epic fantasy and space opera, but maybe my tastes are changing. I am getting really sick of THE BIG BAD.

I lost interest in Star Trek TNG when the Borg arrived. And a variety of other shows when the evil that cannot be defeated showed up. I like the day to day conflicts. The problems that can be wrapped up with smarts and ethics (and superior firepower).

Megalomaniacs are an especial problem to me. There was a trend in writing to try to personify the villain. A lot of books went into the twisted point of view of the bad guy. After a few too many senseless torture scenes, I gave up. I'm tired of the quest for world domination. Why would a guy want to destroy the world to rule it anyway? I never quite understood that. If it all is blasted nothingness, what's to rule?

While learning to craft a story, I started writing from the villain's POV and realized I did not want to go there. How could I possibly understand a crazy killer? I didn't want to get all caught up in the dark thoughts and nastiness. What I ended up doing was writing from the other side. The reactions to the villain's deeds set the right tone for me.

I have found a bunch of new authors who are writing what I want to read right now. Daniel Abraham is wonderful. His stories are full of rich world building and interesting characters. I think they lean toward epic fantasy, but there are no doomed armies marching out to battle the undefeatable evil.

The real world is depressing enough sometimes, I don't need hopelessness in my favorite escape.

My story is writing itself!

By which I mean it just took an unexpected turn. I sent my character to look at something and I was so surprised to see what was actually there.

That might sound a bit odd to non-writers, but I think it happens all the time. I get into a scene and I am acting it out in my head and suddenly a new element appears. Sometimes I have to go back and take it out because it sent the character off on a tangent that ultimately didn't do anything for the story.

And that's where I am now. A couple of unplanned things just fell into place and I have to decide if it makes sense. What does it add to the story beyond this event. I know that I introduced a character way back in chapter 10 and we haven't seen much of her since. So should I let her dangle or remove her? Is she important to the rest of the story? I thought so when I introduced her, but she hasn't had an appearance since then.

Here I am cruising into chapter 49 with new people and events occurring. Too late in the game perhaps? Not sure. I am feeling that this should be a series. And as I am probably most of the way through the book, I can see the themes for subsequent books slowly coalescing. So these new elements might be exactly what I need to set up the next book.

It's still bare bones in some chapters. I read through the more polished chapters comfortably then I hit a bare-bones one and skid to a halt. It's hard to read the rough bits without wanting to fix them immediately, but I want to lay out the plot before I start cleaning up the language.

Which is my cue to get back to writing.