Word Count, Vol. 3:  14401.  Thanks to All Who Bought Echo!  And BIG THANKS to Melissa, Barbara, Ian, Lorna, [anonymous], Lisa, Meg, Matt and Bobby for posting AMAZING reviews on Amazon!!!  And Ashley as well for the 5 star on Nook!

News:  Recently I felt an upgrade in “chip capacity.”  Basically that’s when you know you’re ready to push your daily word count, and I’ve decided to take it from 500 words per day to 600.

Volume 3 is coming along well, and this will be Verus’s journey as well as Atriya’s.  The cover I’m working with the artist on is actually a split screen between both of them.  As Atriya is going through a lot of emo darkness after getting beat up in volume 2, I wanted to offset that with kind of a future version of him in Verus who encounters challenges but is generally more positive and on the rise.  And also, I just enjoy writing a kickass warrior who happens to be a woman.  I like when the surface definitions kind of fall by the wayside of the primary characterization (I understand if the primary characterization is race or gender than that has to figure prominently, but I don’t like when it isn’t and writers try to shove it in your face).  Also there’s a fair amount of astral/magic stuff in this one, and I like the idea that fantastic imagery has memetic significance behind it, so in other words:  instead of just trying to dazzle the reader with set pieces, I like the idea that each astral action or set piece relates to what is happening on a thematic level.

Anyways, back to work!  If you are a writer, I wish you inspired drafting and insightful editing!