It's out there!

Book one is finished.

At times I thought I would not be able to say that, it's been quite a journey. The thrill of world building and getting the first draft down was soon followed by the crushing realization it had a long way to go to be a well written book.

Bottle of wine followed swiftly after a visit to the Hampshire Writing Festival. The Festival - for those who don't know - has workshops for writers and the opportunity to have your work reviewed by agents followed by a short ten minute interview with them to hear their feedback. I found the experience expensive and salutary.

My first draft was so full of problems I didn't know where to start. The dread words, info dump, dialogue attribution, adverbs, tripped from practiced tongues as the agents' eyes glazed over...… no doubt they had repeated that often throughout the day.

I spent the next two years learning the craft of writing. I must have bought every book about how to write, watched every pod-cast from fantasy writers and bored the ears off my cat reciting passages out loud. I practiced, I rewrote and then rewrote it again, ripped out a whole war, darkened the story until it only vaguely resembled the manuscript I took to the Festival with hope in my heart and blinkers on my eyes.

And here it is, sent off to agents with more hope in my heart. Keeping my fingers crossed and my pen firmly on Book two.