to be published by DAW BOOKS eventually (maybe March 2010?????)

PROGRESS NOTES:

June 12, 2008: I've just finished putting together the prep work for this novel, which mostly involves figuring out what happens in the fifteen years between this book and A MAGIC OF NIGHTFALL. But at the moment, I haven't yet put down the first word of the actual draft...

June 17, 2008: The first words went down for A MAGIC OF DAWN today... We're underway!

June 26, 2008: Passed through the 10,000 word mark today, which is excellent progress as the characters are set in place and their agendas outlined. However, don't get too excited, since I have to get cracking on a WILD CARDS story, and so I'm not likely to have as quick progress for the next few months. Ah, well...

November 27, 2008: Well, I hate to say this, but between the WILD CARDS stories, the revisions on NIGHTFALL, a brief detour to rewrite another novel in progress, and the usual press of work with my teaching load at the university, I'm only now finally back to working hard on DAWN. As of today, we're at almost 24,000 words for the novel -- which is far below where I would have hoped to have been at this point. However, it's where I am... and I'm back to work on it!

December 7, 2008: Hit 30,000 words today. Also, I've realized that there's a plot development that needs to be properly foreshadowed, so I've made notes in the appropriate viewpoint sections for the revision pass. Onward!

December 29, 2008: A MAGIC OF DAWN is now officially a novel! Today I hit and passed the 40,000 word mark, which is SFWA's official minimum benchmark for novel length. Of course, just because I'm at the minimum length for a novel doesn't mean I'm anywhere near finished. I'm at best a quarter of the way through the draft. Which means I'd better get back to work!

January 7, 2009: Welcome to the new year, and welcome to 50,000 words. This puts me somewhere around a third of the way through the first draft, in all likelihood. But the semester starts Monday, so things will slow down a bit...

January 27, 2009: 60,000. Not yet a novel, but closer to that goal...

February 20, 2009: Today, I hit and passed 80,000 words. Things are moving nicely (for the moment, anyway) and I'm liking this book and what it has to say and the characters within it more and more as I go along. I can't wait to hit "The End" so I can go back and start working on all the notes I've been accumulating toward the rewrite.

March 13, 2009: So what if it's Friday the 13th? Today I hit 100,000 words on the manuscript. Things are moving nicely now, with several of the pieces falling into place for the ending (though Denise has suggested a new POV voice which will require some serious additions to the word count on the revision pass-through. So while the first draft still looks to be coming in around 150,000, the submission draft will almost certain be significantly more. But hey, I knew that...

March 26, 2009: 110,000 words. If I'm guessing right about the length of the first draft (and believe me, I am guessing), then there's only about 40,000 words left to go -- another short novel.)

April 19, 2009: 125,000 words, and I still think the first draft will come in around 150,000 -- but it will be significantly longer than that before I hand it in to Sheila at DAW...

June 3, 2009: I've gone back through the entire draft of A MAGIC OF DAWN revising it up to the last (unwritten) section. My personal revision notes had been fairly extensive and there were several significant changes to the first draft that I just couldn't resist fixing a bit early, especially since I wasn't quite certain how those changes would reverberate down to the climax. I'm now drafting out the closing chapters, and the manuscript has hit 150,000 words; I expect that this draft will end at around 160,000 words -- and then it's off to Sheila at DAW and my first readers for their reactions. I can see the light...!

June 8, 2009: 160,000 words. Coming closer, but I'm not going to predict how much further away the end is...

June 20, 2009: 176,500 words... and DONE! The submission draft is finished, almost exactly one year after the first words were put down. Feels good -- though there's still inevitable revisions to come...

The cover will go here one day...

FROM THE PROPOSAL FOR THE CYCLE:

THE SETTING: Imagine Renaissance Florence blended with late Imperial Rome and spiced with some of the trappings of ‘fin de siécle’ Vienna: a great city of a far-reaching empire; a city situated at the center of civilization; a city where art and music and writing flourish, where the world’s greatest minds and greatest talents come to make their reputations, while the trade of a hundred lesser nations passes through the ports and the streets. 

    That is Nessantico.

    Consider a world where magic has for centuries been linked to a central, dominating religion and secret rituals, a world where magic is an integral part of the ‘technology’ of the world, but where now some people claim to be able to create magic without the rituals, without the religion -- people those in charge consider dangerous enemies. Magic here is created through a devout faith, and can only be performed by a special few whose minds are open to it. Here, magic lights the streets and powers the engines of economy; here, magic is the great weapon of war and forms the foundation of Nessantico’s greatness as well as the chains that bind its servant nations to it. 

    Envision a world shifting and changing, where ways of life centuries old are being questioned, where the cold wind of reason and logic threatens to alter everything. This is a world that sits atop on a precipice, all unrealized, with those caught in the beauty and aura of the city unable to see the cracks and division in their society that are about to send them plummeting down into chaos and into a world they won’t recognize… 

    This is no place or time in our world, though the technology and outlook will be most akin to the Italian Renaissance, as well as having social, political, and cultural affinities with Vienna at the turn of the century. Nessantico is about to plunge into a world-embracing conflagration that is, underneath, a clash of culture and outlook. Nations are emerging and chafing under the bonds of Nessantico, new ideas are rising that threaten the old order of things, and the world is becoming smaller under the press of technology. The paradigms of the past are being questioned and tested.

    The chief religion of Nessantico -- Concénzia, after the chief deity of the pantheon, Cénzi-- will be akin to what Gnostic Christianity might have become had it not been quashed -- though this is absolutely not Christianity and will contain elements of several religions, monotheistic as well as pagan. There is no Christ myth here, nor is such a concept part of the theology…. Rather, this is a religion veiled with mysticism and secrecy in a universe where the magic truly works, where those endowed with a special mental gift can create spells after long and arduous preparation. Yes, there are other types of magic out there, but they are also bound up in the greater mythology of the world, tied to lesser gods than Cénzi and thus their magic is less, also. There are rumors, however (as this world begins to expand and find other cultures that Nessantico has not yet assimilated, especially in the Utter West) that there are gods and magics that may be greater even than Cénzi.

    This is also a religion that has used its power to insinuate itself into the political structure of the nation, as well as the wider world. Though those of the faith eschew political ambition in the oaths they take, in truth all political leaders must consider the reaction of the faith’s rulers before they act. And there are factions within factions inside the Concénzia faith as well…

As with the Cloudmages books, my intention is to make the books as "stand-alone" as possible. Each book will have a distinct beginning and ending, and the main characters will be different in each book. It is the city of Nessantico whose "character arc" will begin in the first book and end in the last, not the people themselves.

I'm really excited about this project, and I hope you'll like it as well, when you finally get a chance to read it.