by Paulette Jaxton

The first draft of The Empress Sword is finished! I completed the second of two supplemental chapters I wanted to add this morning. That brings the final word count to 80,541 words, just a little over my target of eighty thousands words. I expect this will go up during the rewrite, as I have been getting some supportive feedback from my alpha readers telling me they want more.
 
My plan is to put the draft aside for a month to give me a little distance from it, then begin my rewrites at the end of April. In the mean time I’m going to be doing some much needed reverse world building for The Empress Sword as well as begin the process for my next book project Priestess of the Flame.
 
I promised myself that when I completed the first draft I would give myself a reward. I wanted something that would help me in the next phase and also be fun for a tech geek like myself to play with. So I purchased a set of mapping programs from ProFantasy Software. The programs are designed for use by the role play gaming industry, but can also be used for the sort of world building I need for epic fantasy writing.
 
A side benefit of using these programs will be that I’ll have some wonderful maps and city plans to supplement the novel when it’s released. My worlds will have a beautiful visual component to go along with — what I hope are — the stunning narrative descriptions.