I'm Back...Sorta

July brought the birth of our second child: a ravenous baby boy. All are happy and healthy and trying to be wise in the Hill household.

Now I'm starting to get back into the swing of things with my various projects. I wrote, or at least finally finished a book review for Low Town by Daniel Polansky, and the going was slow and torturous—as if I'd never written a review in my life. Ugh. But it's done and I'm happy.

Some of you may be curious about the fate of the Shadow Bytes webcomic. I'm at work on it and will update you as soon as I can about its return. In the mean time I thank everyone for your support and interest in the comic

I've managed to finally pass the 50k mark for my 2010 NaNoWriMo started story: Felling Abberfaun. Yes, about a year late. I'm at 70k now, and the novel is looking like it will end up in the 110k range. (I'm also fairly certain I won't bother with a 2011 NaNo—too much other work.) Felling Abberfaun is going well and I enjoy my time in the world, but it will push back my rework of the Hammerblood tale: Veil of a Warrior until year end (at this rate). Part of me wants to return to Hammerblood now, finish a new draft and submit it to agents and publishers. But the other part of me wants to see Felling Abberfaun through. I know the work done on it will help me with VoaW and make for a deeper, richer story.

Reading time has been pretty sparse, but I did get through Low Town and started The Unremembered. Initially I am intrigued, but a series of stops and starts (no fault of Orullian) has left me with a need to start it from the top again. I attended and bought a signed copy of Blake Charlton's sophomore effort: Spellbound last month. Attending the signing was lots of fun and I hope to go to others in the future. There has been no time to read it yet, but I look forward to seeing where Charlton has taken the story. Feed by Mira Grant is the current crop and I am quite enjoying the term: Viral Amplification.