Well, whatever virus or bacteria or mass hysteria I was fighting off seems to have fallen before the advancing armies of my epic immune system.

That’s not to say the day was without frustration. My recording schedule’s gone screwy due to a neighbor reconstructing his vacation home. Over the winter we got a larger-than-usual number of really gnarly storms (hurricane force winds and worse, forty-foot waves coming over the sea wall and frequently bearing gigantic tree trunks, rain the likes of which make God reach for his SCUBA tanks–it was seriously epic) and a few of the houses on the sea wall…well, their winterization didn’t hold up, and they got some serious water intrusion.

So, the walls are coming out, the roofs are coming off, the outer walls are coming off–they’re basically rebuilding large sections from the studs up. All of that means that all daylight hours (and those are getting longer and longer now) are filled with the joyous sounds of nail guns, pounding, sawing, and crashing.

And, as soundproof as my little studio is, it can’t keep out all that noise. So, starting day 25, my day is getting switched around–writing early, recording late, because I’ve got clients waiting on the narration.

Other than working out that little problem, I spent most of the day doing publishing work and hiking. Felt good to be out and moving around after a day and a half being laid up.

When I got down to the writing shift, I discovered that I’ve hit that point in the book where everything is opening out–the actions and adventures of the characters that started this book are pushing the narrative to pick up the other threads left hanging at the end of book 2.

This means that I’ve got nine POV voices to load into my head–as well as the characters’ current situations and concerns. That’s going to slow me down for a while, as I’m now having to go back and read large sections of Book 2 as I write.

Once that gets done, the pace will pick up again, though I frankly expect this book to go through a few cycles like this, a new one each time a new batch of storylines comes on board.

So, here’s the unimpressive damage:
Starting word count: 38,638
Ending word count: 39,394

39,394 / 120000 words