Joely Sue Burkhart

HALF THE YEAR IS GONE.  ARE HALF OF YOUR GOALS MET?

I must admit that I was too busy this weekend to evaluate my goals for the year and month so far.  My number one goal–finish The Fire Within–isn’t met yet, but I’ve continued steady progress.  The novella is up to 15,421 words and I’m really liking what I have so far.  I’m in that phase of “I can’t wait to see what happens next!”  Even though I plotted this one out beforehand, enough has changed that I’m really not sure how it’ll all unfold.   

Molly asked me the other day how I was going to resolve Zahak and Amin’s dilemma, and I had to admit that I really don’t know.  I know in general what happens with the main story arc, but the brother vs. brother theme was a late addition.  I’m still not exactly sure who the Keldari villain is.  Not as bad as Darius, her brother, but I know *someone* is going to do a Very Bad Thing that leads to the climax of the story.  I’ve laid so many red herrings, that I don’t know myself! It’s one of two people (this is a small cast novella, after all), and both are huge blows for Zahak to bear.  Ah, I love being vicious to my characters!

Size wise, this novella is feeling longer to me than Survive My Fire, possibly closer to 30K, which I’m all for.  I don’t really have a size constraint, so I’ll tell the story how it feels best.  However, I have edits coming in the next week or two for SMF, as well as a Gothic antho call I really wanted to write for with a July 31st deadline.  With the SMF release this month and promo stuff picking up, this month will be tight and busy!  How about you?