I have a problem: I like skipping places in the stories I’m writing. This would be a creative thing to do if I had a plan for what was going to happen when I returned to write the missing gap. And for the most part, do know what I’m going to do to bridge this particular gap and end part one. I just have yet to get to it.

Would you believe I have about 230 pages more after the missing gap between parts one and two?

I also wonder to myself why I continued writing this story when so many of my other stories die a page or two into their creation (or 120, as is Alyssum). I just had a really fun time writing Lenn and Ian’s characters, and then later on what would happen with the slow addition of family members. For example, with Chris and Aaron, I really planned to include them more in the daily life. But considering how Chris ‘bounced’ into the room without knowing Lenn’s condition, and that the whole idea of keeping him safe and keeping him secret (in an unspoken way) would be by not coming over often. Maybe I should add more details that Ian would leave to hang out with them in between Lenn resting.

And how’s that for a writer’s coincidence that Lenn is saved by the same family that has housed Xande, his wife’s long-dead brother? Writers are magicians sometimes in hiding their most egregious coincidences as simple events, much better than I can come up with. Oh, and the reason Xande outright decks Lenn in the face? This is a detail I need to add with more emphasis: he didn’t just say “I married your sister”, he didn’t just say “we had sex and had a baby together”. Iatnasi is a very plain language. It’s basically a word that simply and graphically describes the process. Think of it as the word ‘fuck’ that has an even stronger connotation that is nearly never used in such a small and tightly-knit community. Never mind that Lenn has no qualms about saying ‘vysht‘ when he gets mad enough (essentially ‘shit’).

Another thing I keep trying to do: after 540 pages of writing, I tried to come up with an even more serious reason for Xande and the village to hate Lenn. What I’ve described just doesn’t seem enough to me, but I’ve put the poor guy in enough pain and probably need a second opinion. So yeah, unless you’ve been leading the narrative along with a carrot, don’t put bombshells on page 500. It even felt tacky to me, and that’s saying something.

So yeah, I have more writing to do. But it’s been a lot of fun, and I’m glad it’s out there now. I have a gap to write, and then I can put more out there without losing anyone.