2026, the year that's felt sooo endless, is nearly finished. And a tough year it's been, in so many ways. I'm nearly eight months past my back surgery, and still have occasional pain (from fatigue), but it's a lot better than the six-month mark. I also still do PT exercises every day. Fear of losing mobility is a powerful motivator.
Anyway, if you're bothering to read this it's because you're interested in my novel (I hope), and want to hear about the progress I'm making -- not about my holiday plans, politics, what I made for dinner last night, my surprising sadness at the death of Patrick Stewart, or how long I can hold a low plank.
There's days it's a struggle to get words on the page, but I keep going. I think I've finally written the important scenes for the antagonist, Kasiran, to help readers understand the reasons for his decline. The most recent is from when he's 10 years old. He breaks a school rule, and is punished way out of proportion to the misbehavior.
Now probably every child ever would say they were punished unfairly -- at least once ;-). But one important thing about those experiences is how the child reacted to them. Taken from his parents at age six and forced to attend the Talent Academy, at first Kasiran tries, unconsciously, to find new parental figures by being a good student. But the teachers don't like him, say mean things, and punish him more than the other students.
He doesn't understand they're deeply afraid of him -- the boy with the most powerful Talents in a generation. So he learns to mistrust people who have power over him, and decides he'll never be controlled again.
In writing the new stuff I was reminded again that I really need to turn off the inner judges and write it down without worrying if it's 'bad'. When I do, I find my brain comes up with more and more new stuff.
For instance, the Academy Headmaster has so far been just a name in my outline. But after I wrote the punishment scene, I had an idea for a scene where some teachers complain to the Headmaster about Kasiran's behavior. As I wrote, I was surprised to find out the Headmaster is a good judge of character, not easily intimidated, and very sarcastic. It's as if my subconscious had already figured him out and was just waiting for me to write about him. Love it when that happens.
There's more details to add surrounding the Kasiran incidents, but at least now I have rough draft narratives of some important missing scenes and can move on to other sketchy areas. Some early scenes for Nireh (Anirena - Giri's love interest) are just sketched out, and the second half of the book needs a lot more filling-out. My goal - a very tentative goal, never spoken aloud - is to finish the second draft by May of next year. We'll see.
Hope you're all well. Best wishes for the holidays.
