Two weeks ago, I finished writing my first novel.

So that’s it, I can officially say I’ve done it, I’m not a quitter. A smidge under two-and-a-half years (2 years, 4 months, and 21ish days, to be exact), from the first typed word (‘Bye’, if you’re curious) to the last (‘Man’, again for you curious types) and I’m still in bloody love with it. Sure, after a few edits and several read-throughs, it might lose some of that lovely new-car-smell, but right now I’m in that honeymoon period, and we’re very very much still in love.

Through Bended Grass is the story of Rowan Hayes, a young mother searching desperately for her son, violently stolen from her home by his Fey father. Dragged halfway across the globe, she is forced to the gritty streets and wondrous countryside of modern day Ireland, but soon finds herself embroiled in the mysterious, bastardized world of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Fey folk of ancient legend, and exposed to a host of dangerous characters she thought only Fairy Tale. Rowan soon learns that her halfbreed son is purported to be the lynchpin in a mysterious war engulfing the Fey world, and threatening to spill into hers. Travelling through both our world and the alien landscape of the Fey, Rowan must face challenges both physical and spiritual to have any hope of ever seeing her son again.

Perhaps, though, it’s easier to sum Through Bended Grass up with my submission to agent Colleen Lindsay’s ‘Query in 140 Characters or Less’ contest, in which I was selected runner-up out of over 300 entries:

I tend to think of Through Bended Grass (when I’m thinking highly of myself, and feel like an ego-stroke) as Tad Williams’ The War of the Flowers meets Mark Chadbourn’s The Age of Misrule by way of Neil Gaiman. I know, I know, setting the bar a little high, and if I become half the author those three are I’ll be lucky, but I wear those influences very clearly on my sleeve. They’ve been there since the beginning (well, except Chadbourn, I came to him late; but we must’ve been drinking from the same well, give some of the similar themes and mythology we work with) and their work made an indelible mark on Through Bended Grass.

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I finished Through Bended Grass late last week. More to come soon.

It’s been a while since I last updated (despite any promises I may have made), but that doesn’t necessarily mean that progress on the novel has been equally quiet. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. For the first time since I started conceptualizing and writing Through Bended Grass the finish line is firmly in sight. Of the 28 planned chapters, I’m currently working on Chapter 24 (currently untitled). Yeah, that’s close, only 4 more + and epilogue to go.To give you another perspective on how close the end is, the chapter I just wrapped up (Chapter 23) is titled, wait for it, Through Bended Grass. Generally, it’s safe to say that when a chapter shares a title with the novel itself, it’s probably an important one… and it’s no different here. Chapter 23 sees Rowan make a final pass from Ireland and back into the Fey world to confront her biggest challenge yet.

Through the whole novel, Rowan is desperately searching for her missing son, Lewis, and from Chapter 24 on her questions begin to be answered and, well, she’s not exactly going to like everything she hears.As you can probably guess, Through Bended Grass (the chapter, not the book!) is the first time the title of the novel begins to make any sort of sense. Of course, I spread hints through the rest of the book, and one character in particular gives you a good glance (hah! pun not intended ) at the meaning, but it isn’t laid out before the reader until this chapter.

In fact, the scene where the meaning becomes clear, as Rowan passes back into the Fey world, is one of my favourite scenes in the novel, and one of the few times where I feel that the words on the page do justice to the vision I had in my head.I won’t lie, that chapter took me a long time to write, with many days staring at my computer screen and little progress at the end of my writing session. Still, I think all that time was well spent.

Of course, since the climax of the novel is approaching, there’s also a lot of action, some great revelations about the characters (if I can toot my own horn, of course) and a, hopefully, satisfyingly ragged ending. Rowan’s story isn’t always a happy one, it isn’t always a perfect one, but I do think it’s a compelling one. Through Bended Grass ends here, with most everything wrapped up, but I have a feeling that Rowan, and other characters in the novel, aren’t quite done with me yet.Now, I’m not suggesting I’ll be writing another story about Rowan or the Fey world, in fact, I have another story brewing in my head that stars a new protagonist and takes place in Morocco/Japan, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few familiar faces popping up in the future.

You see, I’ve always been a fan of standalone stories that are bridged in little ways. Terry Brooks did a good job of this early in his career, with novels that stood well on their own for newcomers, but with just enough connections to past works to satisfy longtime readers. That all being said, it’s probably best to concentrate on finishing and selling one novel, before jumping into the deep end with sequels.

Speaking of selling the novel, at the suggestion of my good friend, Shawn Speakman, my plan is to try to have a solid draft of Through Bended Grass done by October. Why? Well, a huge writer’s conference happens in Surrey, BC every year and this time around Terry Brooks is attending, and, well, any advice and help I can get from a fellow like him would be a huge leap forward in actually seeing my manuscript turn into a published novel.In any case, I’ve still got a lot of work ahead of me… but I’m bloody eager to do it.

The end is in sight, now I’ve just got to get there.

Well… no updates for almost a month and now two in two days? What the hell happened?

 Chapter 14, The Calm Within the Storm,  is done. No I didn’t write it in a day (productivity like that is in my repetoire) , but rather half of it has been written for about 6 months now.

 ”6 months?!!?” I hear you exclaim. “But why?”

There’s a good reason. Back a few months ago I was in a creative writing class (I didn’t have a job and figured I should keep myself busy somehow, so I enrolled in school) and used it as a great launching pad to get started on Through Bended Grass. I wasn’t able to bend each and every assignment towards my novel, but when we had to write a descriptive piece, I knew this was the scene to do.

 Chapter 14 is one of the most frenetic and important chapters in my novel and one of the first ones to form fully in my head. I won’t go spoiling much, but the end of the chapter ends with Rowan conciously throwing herself off the top of the Cliffs of Moher during a wicked storm  and tumbling 600 feet into the frothing ocean below.

 This ends the second part of the novel with a hell of abang and sets up the rest of the story. This also acts as roughly the halfway point in the novel, meaning it’s all downhill from here. Like walking south.

The next portion of the chapter, a short interlude, was also written almost a year ago and was originally included as the prologue of the novel. The interlude showcases the first moments when Rowan and Lewis’ father meet and then spend a rather twisted, tangled and sweaty night in the sack. I decided it wasn’t the best way to start the novel, but it acts as a perfect foil coming off of the frantic Chapter 14. It also allows me to drag out Rowan’s fate for a few more pages.

Chapter 14 is home to a few revelations and a couple of minor twists, which have been fun to play around with. Hopefully I’ve managed to drop enough hints and red herrings throughout the text to make it satisfying to the reader.

 All in all, I couldn’t be happier with how the first half of the novel has gone. I spent a lot of time beforehand plotting out the novel and outlining things. I’m amazed by how closely what’s been written matches what was in my head when first dreaming it all up. It’s the little things that have reared their heads along the way, however, that really make the whole process so exciting.

 Well, onwards to Chapter 15!

Well, after Chapter 12, which took a bloody era to write, Chapter 13 and most of Chapter 14 are done.

 Chapter 14 marks the halfway point of the novel, roughly, and features one of the most dramatic and tone setting scenes. I’m really happy with how things are coming together and after this chapter it’s all downhill to the conclusion of the novel. I can’t believe I’m nearing the hump, the end line is in sight and I just gotta find a way to get there.

But that’s half the fun, right?

I’m still thinking of putting up a new excerpt. Either Chapter 10 or the extended excerpt that some of my friends have read which contains chapters 1-3. Let me know which one you might be more interested in.

Jeez, where to start.

 I haven’t posted one of these progress reports in a while. Why? Because I’ve been writing so damn much…

Chapter 10 and 11 are done and dusted. Actually, they’ve been done for a couple of weeks now and I’m currently hard at work on Chapter 12, which is proving to be the most difficult to write chapter yet. I’ll speak on that later, when the chapter is done, and instead I’ll just let you know that Chapter 10 & 11 were a blast to write and came quickly. I probably spent less than half the amount of time writing them combined than I’ve spent on Chapter 12 so far.

 Why so fast?

Simply put, they wrote themselves. Chapter 10 was interesting for me because I was able to explore a part of Ireland I’m very familar with (and rather fond of), but through the eyes of a character that is very much aware that there’s a whole other world existing just beneath the surface. The whole chapter leads towards a violent confrontation between Rowan and a faerie creature with rather nefarious intentions. It was an interesting challenge for me to write such a dark chapter in a setting that I have nothing but fond memories of.

 Chapter 11 was fun for a totally different reason. Rowan once again steps away from our world back into the world of Faerie and it’s always a pleasure to explore it with her. I’m not a hugely descriptive writer, I tend to believe that the characters should tell the story and the readers deserve the benefit of the doubt when it comes to imagining the world it takes place in. Of course, this doesn’t mean I don’t use description (as you all know from reading the excerpt!) and this chapter was one that really allowed me to test my abilities to paint a picture in the mind of the readers. Rowan travels into a weird world and I hope that everyone reading the novel feels like they’re right there alongside her.

 One thing I made a conscious decision about before I started writing Through Bended Grass was that, despite drawing heavily from the history and lore of our world, that I wouldn’t let myself be tied down by that same lore. I want room to wriggle around in what’s already been established and give it my own spin, to make my mark on the lore without taking any self agrandizing liberties. It’s certainly a fine line to walk, but also a fun one.

As a bit of an aside, I think Chapter 10 would make a good excerpt, giving readers a taste of what the story’s like later on in the novel without giving away too much. It’s not going to happen right away, but if people really want it, I’ll consider it.

Now, back to Chapter 12, it needs all my attention!

I actually finished Chapter Nine a little while ago (currently halfway through Chapter Ten at the moment), but got so caught up in writing, publishing the excerpt (read it!) and starting a redesign of the web site that I forgot to write about it! Well, it’s a slow day at work and I figure it’s finally time to get caught up on the progress report.

Chapter Nine, titled Four Leaf Clovers and Bended Grass, turned out to be the longest chapter yet, weighing in at a respectable 4011 words. I wasn’t really planning for this to happen, but as the chapter wore on I realised just how much needed to be accomplished and it lengthened. I feel confident that despite the increase in word count, I still managed to create a chapter full of interesting situations, solid pacing and good dialogue

Chapter Nine begins the second act of the novel and sees Rowan back in our world, but having to deal with the fact that she’s very much aware that another world exists out there, her son is still missing, and she’s meant to find someone she has no idea how to find. In a lot of ways I get to take some of the ideas that have been floating around Epic Fantasy – A missing son, an alternate world, magical creatures, a sense of discovery and wonder – and play with them in a new light, getting to put my own spin on things and (hopefully) making a lot of it seem fresh again.

Of course, by no means would I call Through Bended Grass an epic story, quite the opposite actually. Through Bended Grass is a story about people, about relationships (both internal and external), about discovery and, maybe most importantly, about family. It’s not about a quest to destroy an evil-something-or-other (though a certain antagonist certainly tries to fill that role), it’s not even about “good vs. evil”, but rather about the shades of grey found throughout the world. I know that’s a cliche at this point, but I still think it’s an integral part of writing a good novel, Fantasy or otherwise.

One character, who is introduce in this chapter, has surprised me a lot by how much he’s become involved in the story. When I was in the early planning stages he had a single, small role to play and then more or less disappeared. But then I started writing about him, discovering his history and what brought him to where he is during the story, and I began to realize how important he is to Rowan’s story. His role has expanded since then and I expect that by the end of the novel it will have expanded even more. Anymore about him would be spoiler territory, but I certainly can’t wait for my readers to meet him and continue to learn about him just as I have.

Chapter Nine turned out to be a hefty chapter, but I think it adds a lot to the novel and manages to keep up a good pace. The start of Rowan’s real journey begins with this chapter and it doesn’t let down with the wonder, discovery and action until the end of the novel.