Hit the 35% mark.

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The word counter is now at 33k (33,373 is the exact count), which means I just posted Chapter 14 to Pendragon (my writing group – get the joke? Pen-dragon? yeah, I know, I’m pushing it). I’m aiming for 90k words. Using an average of 2250 words per chapter, that gives me 40 chapters, so 14 chapters is 35% of the way there. 80k to 100k is an accepted/expected range for a first novel according to the research I’ve done. That gives me some leeway. It shouldn’t be a problem for me to hit the 80k mark. Regardless, I want to make sure I have a good handle on where I can cut or expand if I need to if asked to.

Yes, I know, some people say “the story takes as long as it needs to to tell itself”. That may be, but the publishers have economic concerns when it comes to a book, so the closer you can make your manuscript to fit what they want, the better chance you have to getting it published.

(As a side note, the aroma of supper cooking in the crockpot (Rootbeer BBQ Pulled Pork) is driving me crazy.)

While on Thanksgiving “vacation”, I did some work on a new product I’m developing for Hart-Felt Productions called “Hart’s Deep”. I haven’t decided yet on a game system, but that’s okay. The stuff I’m working on now is system-neutral. Hart’s Deep is what I’m calling a layered product. It starts out with a region map, showing the location of Hart’s Deep and the area in a 200 mile or so radius. Major sites will be on the map, such as nearby cities, towns and other destinations (like big ruins and other places adventurers might want to go.

The second layer will be a 40 mile radius around Hart’s Deep. That’s about a one day’s journey or so in a standard medievalish fantasy world. It will show the area in more detail, with villages and smaller locations of interest.

The third and final layer will consist of many parts, and will be all the local maps, starting with Hart’s Deep itself. That will be followed by maps of the adventure locations. Each map will have a full write-up, including stats in the game system I will eventually choose. Or maybe I can figure out a way to do it statless. Need to work on that.

Regardless, the plan is to offer all this stuff in a number of different ways: individual products (i.e. just Hart’s Deep), in a variety of packages (i.e. all the towns, or everything for the 40 mile radius layer), or the whole thing when it’s completed. I’m also looking into doing it as a subscription service, with stuff released at regular intervals until it’s all out. People who buy things in larger groups will, of course, get things at a discount.