The Avatar’s Flames got just a bit past 35,000 words this past week, which was about what I expected. Now, last time I said that at ~20,000 words, the book was likely about 1/5th done. I think I should clarify a little on what I meant.

Ancient Ruins was about 117,000 words, Halls of Power about 134,000 words, and Born a Queen about 93,000 words. I chose 100,000 words as a simple benchmark because it was about the middle of the road where my novels are concerned, but it isn’t a guarantee that The Avatar’s Flames will end up that long. When I first was writing the previous versions of Through the Fire, I was expecting it to end up between 60,000 and 80,000 words for a volume. I think it will end up longer than that, but I’m not certain. The story will take as long as it takes for the first volume, whether that’s 50,000 words (roughly ~160 pages) or 200,000 words. I’m pretty sure it won’t be as short as 50,000, though. I’ve got enough plot elements I want in the book that I expect it’ll be quite a bit longer than that.

Now, with that said… I’m not going to be making much progress, if any, until the 30th. I have a friend in my neck of the woods for a vacation, and we’re heading up to Seattle for the convention I’ve mentioned before. This means I’m not going to be around much for the next week and a half, and I thought it was best to let everyone know.

Hopefully I’ll have fun, learn a lot at the panels I signed up for, and return revitalized and ready to write. Hope everyone has fun!