Which means no more Druth History Month. We hadn’t actually reached the end of Druth History– there’s still 215 more years to go. (Thorn of Dentonhill, Holver Alley Crew and the rest of the Maradaine stories take place in the year 1215.) However, I’ve come to realize that I need to do a serious overhaul of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries, especially with the Reunification.
See, in Druth history, 1009 is a Pretty Big Year, like 1066 for England or 1776 for America. The splintered kingdoms come back together as one nation, Druthal, but in the history as I currently have it written, I gloss over that process somewhat. And I don’t want to gloss it over.
Part of that comes from the ideas I have for Vanguard, as Dayne (the protagonist) is a Druth History buff. And an early action sequence takes place at the opening of a new museum by the Royal Historical Society. (Yes, it will be exciting, even if it takes place in a museum.) The point is, the finer points of Druth history, especially regarding the Reunification, needs more detail work. And in some places, just plain rewriting.
In other news, I’ve finished the Holver Alley Crew rewrite, and once my beta people give it a once-over to make sure I didn’t keep writing “through” when I mean “threw” (a sloppy mistake I make far too often– it’s totally a writing-on-autopilot thing), then I’ll send it off to the agent. I’m now working on the re-write of Maradaine Constabulary, which is going well enough for now. I’d love to have that done before the year is over– especially since January cedar pollen tends to turn my brain into tapioca. And then I can devote the beginning of 2012 to finishing the rough draft of Vanguard.