The Dreadnaught Steams Away

After three butt-numbing days in my office chair, including yesterday, that had a stretch from nine a.m. until two p.m. during which I never got up even to pee, the first draft on the fantasy novel is done. It should have taken me five or six days, but once you see the barn, the tendency to run is sometimes overwhelming.

My performance at silat class this week was crappy, and while I can't blame it all on the book, some I can -- I was awash in alien seas and my hands were cramped, and after five hours in the chair and another hour and a half on the road, I was lucky I could stand up, much less move.

I have sent the ms off to my collaborator, and to those of you who indicated an interest, it will be going out as an email attachment on the morrow. I'll ship it to the addresses you sent, and if your box chokes at anything over a meg and three-tenths, you won't get it. If it doesn't show up in the next day or so, and you asked to see it, drop me a line.

Traditionally, this is where the writer offers the usual pool-hustler's excuses -- the light was bad, my arm was tired, the table was warped, i.e., explanations as to things about which I might have qualms and reasons why I wasn't up to my best game.

Not offering those. It is first-draft, which is excuse enough, and it stands on its own or not without me explaining it.

For those of you who have an interest in such things, the map Reaves and I came up with, showing oceans, countries, major cities, lakes, all like that, is posted at the top of this entry. You can click on it, enlarge it, and download it if you want to refer to it, or check back here. (Some fantasy readers love these things, some don't, but probably we'll include a cleaned-up version for the novel when it comes out. We have other sketches we used to keep things clear in our minds, a city map, a drawing of the dreadnaught, like that, but you shouldn't need those, nor, really, the map.)

And now I'm going to go sit in the hot tub ...