Even more exciting, from a fantasy fiction standpoint, is that it's solidly in fantasy romance, a genre I've been wanting to write for a while but never quite managed to get that romance angle to be dominant enough to the plot. Also, I've bounded nicely into Act 2.
Actually, I fibbed about being halfway done. I'm more than halfway to the 50,000 word goal, but less than halfway on the finished novel. Length-wise, this one may end up being one of my shorter fantasies, which is a very good thing. To be able to keep this at or around 80,000 words would be hugely helpful. Masks is the length it needs to be (although I have an opportunity to shorten it a little more on this edit) to serve the story but at its current length it's a bit too long for a 'first' novel to tempt agents. Of course it's going to take months and months to hammer this very rough draft into a finished product, and I may finish editing one of the other novels that have been stewing before I even start to edit on this one, so it's not going to be the next one I market no matter how strong I think this first draft may be. First drafts always seem shiny to me, but after they've sat around for a month or more their warts start to show and the real work begins.
Anyway, the long and the long of this is that I'm excited by this novel and I'm looking forward to all the evil waiting for the two main characters in the rest of Act 2 and all of Act 3. Whether this ends up at 80,000 words or not, I think this is going to be a fun book and hopefully it'll appeal to a broad audience of both fantasy and romance readers.
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