A moment of reflection

About two weeks ago, I finished the final revision on Book Six of my series. All told, it took me 40 months to write 700,000 words.

As is typical of things like this, the reality didn't live up to the long-imagined hype. I didn't leap from my chair and start jumping around in a fit of frenzy. Instead, I simply let out a long sigh. Bestselling fantasy author Stephen Donaldson often says (and I'm paraphrasing) that books are never really finished. They just sort of fritter away until there finally comes a time when you don't find yourself working on them anymore. In today's age of online marketing, truer words have never been spoken.

I still have to go through the editing process of books 5 and 6, plus look over galleys, etc. So there's a long way to go before my frittering is done. But there's no denying that I reached a milestone in mid-January that few people ever achieve. The series is written, from beginning to end, and I'm plenty proud of it. In my opinion, it's some of the best and most sophisticated fantasy of the past five years, at any level. Of course, that's only my opinion. The readers must decide for themselves.

Thus far, the quality of the reaction has been superb. It's the quantity that needs a little work.

So to any of you who have ever accomplished a large task -- whether writing a book or anything else -- please raise a glass with me.

And whisper ...

Cheers.

epic fantasy, Death Wizard, Stephen Donaldson, George R.R. Martin, Terry Goodkind, Steven Erikson