I’ve just finished chapter thirteen of The Sorceress and her Lovers, which means that I’m officially past the halfway mark.  This makes me feel good because traditionally, it’s much harder for me to write the first half than the second half of my books.

One of the difficulties that I’ve worked through is the naming of an important character.  There are quite a few new characters in this book and several of them have had name changes as I’ve written.  But this particular character’s name is very important, that I’ve actually been thinking about it for two years.  I thought I wanted a name from ancient history, but I didn’t want one that was immediately recognizable.  I tried out more than a dozen names and actually settled on four different ones.  Then I made a last minute change and took a name from biology rather than history and I’m finally happy with it.

I think this book is taking me longer than the other books because the characters have all aged and they all act differently than they have in earlier books– some more than others.

Anyway, I’m pretty happy with how the book is going so far, and I’ll keep you updated here as I approach completion.