I’ve been seriously busy of late, with work and family of course – but I have not been neglecting the Veil War. That work has not been visible here, alas for you, but it is happening.
So what has been happening?
The story of Captain Lewis and his merry men is divided into three parts. Part one, up to the meeting with the crusaders, has been thoroughly re-written with much new material and additional points of view. Part two, the journey across Saudi Arabia, has been less rewritten so much as thoroughly edited, though there is some new material here as well. Part three, the climactic battle and departure from the Middle East, is in the process of editing and a bit of trimming, and is seeing less changes than the earlier two sections.
I am also nearly done with writing the other major part of the story – the tale of the 1st Regiment, Virginia Provisional Militia as they fight the invading Goblin hordes down the Shenandoah Valley. An earlier version of this I ended up discarding almost entirely, starting from scratch this last summer. This story is about half as long as Lewis’ tale, though the characters in it will feature prominently in the next couple books.
The last items on my checklist are to either write or complete several small scenes that illuminate various important aspects of the world of the Veil War that are necessarily beyond the view of the characters in the two main stories. One is already posted here – Curses. One has ended up being of nearly novella length, the others are all comfortably in the short story range for size.
So what will you, the long-suffering reader, see here in the near future?
I’m not sure.
However, my thinking at this point is to post the short stories and novella as I finish them. I may post the new versions of the chapters that are already here, or I may just send them to eager beta-testers. I’m still undecided about whether to post the Virginia story, but I may just do that anyway.
What you will see shortly, though, is a series of threads relating to events in the next book, or even the one after that. I have questions that I’m working my way through, and seeing as your collective help was just, well, helpful in the past – how can I not ask for more?
As the sound of exploding servers recedes into the distance, I am switching over to writing mode.
Stay tuned…