March Progress Report

By Lee Stephen

Having just completed a read-through of the first hundred thousand words of Hero, I feel absolutely confident that it will deliver on all expectations. I mentioned in my last update that there's always a point in every book where I feel totally and utterly disgusted with what I've written. I'm ecstatic to say I've turned that corner. After reading everything from the beginning to where I am now, and after streamlining and making minor corrections, I could not be more satisfied with where book three stands.

As of this moment, Hero is just over 120,000 words long. I'm holding to my early prediction of 150,000 words overall. I'm finding that, as is often the case, I'm getting a great gust of inspiration toward the latter half of the novel. Never do I write faster than when the finish line is in sight. I'm not quite there yet, but it's coming soon.

Outside of this progress report, there's not much else new to say. Writing Hero has consumed all of my literary time, so there are no major events lined up at the moment. I'm aware that this is a very brief newsletter, but sometimes that's a good thing. My focus is entirely on getting this third installment finished and ready to go.

Special thanks to Aaron Spuler for maintaining the Epic Universe blog. You can find a lot of what you might have missed in the newsletters there. That has taken a huge burden from my shoulders.

Also, thanks to Peter Hodges for his two-week long Q&A session with me. If you haven't been to his website yet, you'll definitely want to check it out.

Updates will come heftier as the year progresses and there's more to reveal. Consider this Epic's literary off-season. Some of the hardest work is being done right now, but it's all taking place behind the scenes.

Get ready for another character spotlight in two weeks, where we take a look at our first two Americans!

Best wishes,
Lee Stephen