Oh no — Whose Hearts are Mountains is now two books, which makes more sense plotwise, given that one book can’t hold “She’s found her goal and it’s a doozy” and “She needs to save the world”. But that means I have to come up with a lot more words.  I’m editing book 1 and adding at least 30,000 words to it, then writing book 2, which has become a lot more potentially interesting.

This will allow me to do what I don’t do enough of — describe, describe, describe and give people space between action moments, which I’m told people want.* I struggle with this, because there’s a fine line between tight and exhausting, and a fine line between detailed and verbose. And then there’s word counts, because 50,000 words is not enough for a novel.

So I’ve changed direction in one fell swoop, giving myself work but different work. Good thing I’m done with everything except giving exams and turning in grades now.

Wish me luck!

*************

*At the same time, I don’t want to give the extensive detail of Lord of the Rings — “and by the Sindar it is called ‘Blah’, while by the men of Dunedain it is called ‘Bleagh’, and to the Hobbits it is called ‘Aargh'”. Don’t get me wrong, I love Tolkien, but his linguistic digressions are like reading through the “Begats” in the Bible.