WIP: Week Five. Halfway Mark

This week’s update on my work in progress, ‘Agents of the Truth’ sees me at 47,800 words, which is nearly at the halfway mark of the planned timeline of the first draft. To be honest, I’m surprised I have made it this far in what seems a very short time. I have been managing between 2,000 and 4,000 words per day, depending on what other (paid) work has come in. There seem to be so many other little things to do, and together, they add up to a fair chunk of my writing time. I’m talking about things like replying to emails, filling out a census, looking for Christmas presents, and playing Scrabble.

Actually, the Scrabble thing is work, because I use the tiles and the board to help me with anagrams. I’ve tried online anagram makers/solvers, but they are never as satisfying as doing it yourself, and using pen and paper is trickier than having lettered tiles to move around. Also, using tiles (or cards if you don’t have enough Scrabble letters) is safer too. You find the word(s) you want to make into an anagram and select only those letters, put all others aside so you don’t get mixed up, and then you can’t go wrong.

So, nearly halfway and the story has, as I intended, split into two mysteries. In one, we have two of our new Larkspur characters now in London, and in the other, we have some of our existing Clearwater characters down at Larkspur, both working on mysteries that may or may not be related. The research is going well—everything from the British Museum and Flinders Petrie, and from the Bible to Edgar Allan Poe… Those who like a twisting mystery filled with unusual characters and led by gay men in Victorian times are in for a real treat with ‘Agents of the Past.’

I am still aiming for early next year as a release date, though probably not until the end of February at the earliest. We shall see. And now, back to writing.

I hope to see you on Saturday for my other regular weekly blog.