Labor Day of Love

It's been a crazy ride. On Labor Day, after writing 10-15 hours a week, I wrote the magical line:

The Alliance Trilogy: End of Book One.

Eighty thousand words later, a rough draft that my eleven-year-old and I began under flashlight in the Humboldt Redwood National Park has been completed.

Of course it is still rough – I haven't even read through it fully once myself and we already found one part where a character miraculously is riding his horse, when he had left his noble steed miles behind in the previous chapter – but it has been a wonderful ride for me sharing the journey of writing with my son.

The best moment came after I wrote the final chapters alone. When he read them, I was enjoying a rare Labor Day afternoon nap, and he burst into our bedroom full of excitement.

Two thumbs up never looked so good.

In trying to write a fantasy novel, I thought I would read behind the scenes from one of the masters. Terry Brooks, as well as 19 bestselling fantasy novels, wrote a book called: Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life.

I don't know yet if the magic worked within the pages of our novel, but it certainly happened in the process. Now for the next lesson in a writing life: some serious editing!

Good Writing,
Alon
www.alonshalev.com/