As you may see by the inching little icon on the sidebar of this blog, I’m making steady progress through the second book in The Reinhold Chronicles. I’m within the 90% mark now, so every scene—and every word—counts far more than usual.

Climaxes are both the trickiest and the most fun parts to write. Obviously, this is the point in the story that is physically the biggest. The guns we loaded in the beginning are all getting fired; the character whose doom was foreshadowed dies; the fire that’s been burning the whole story finally turns into an explosion. Especially in the epic/medieval/Celtic/adventure/ish genre I’m writing in, readers expect the final act of a story to be the most massive and exciting thus far. However, this bigness turns out to be a double-edged sword: the climax must be the biggest scene emotionally as well. An action-stuffed climax falls flat when it doesn’t resonate with the book’s heart.

So that’s where I am right now: keeping track of characters, preparing to deliver plot twists, fulfilling on foreshadowing, and generally just keeping the dominoes falling in place.

In other news…

Today is Veterans’ Day! In honor of my great-great-uncle, Capt. Denver V. Truelove, and all other veterans (but especially the 80 Doolittle Raiders), I’m giving away free Kindle copies of Denver and the Doolittle Raid through Friday, November 13th. Enjoy the riveting true story and its nearly 50 historical photographs!