Progress report:

Last time looked at: 3/7/17

Last actual wordage added: 3/7/17

Pages added, 2/28-3/7/17: 5

Current page count: 520

Estimated final page count: 525-575?

Deadline: None, but Wildside and my agent are thrashing out contract details.

Comments: I’ve been adding in details — explaining family connections, making sure Morvash does the proper research, etc. The third draft is up to Chapter Twenty-Three, which is not quite as far as the second got before I started rushing and then doubled back, but close.

I probably still want more sensory details, odors and background noises and weather and so on, which I’ll add in the fourth draft, which will probably be the final polish before submission.

And I think I want to insert at least one chapter on Darissa’s adjustment to her changed circumstances.

Still haven’t dealt with Evreth’s fate, or the soapstone cat, or Darissa’s clothing, or Hakin checking on Inza and Reska, or the ladders being removed. I need to verify the state of Zerra’s bloodstone, but that may be fine as it stands.

This is a long, complicated novel, so there are lots of details to get right. It is now the longest Ethshar novel to date, and it will get longer.

It is not, however, the most important; the events of Night of Madness and The Unwelcome Warlock have rather more widespread effects.

Word-count is 128,311