Well, 2003 has come to an end... but sad to say, A FEAST FOR CROWS hasn't.
I'm getting closer, though, page by bloody page. Yesterday I finished another chapter, the forty-first (though I do move these chapters around as I write, so it probably won't be the forty-first when FEAST is finally published). It's a Davos chapter, his second in the volume.
I now have 911 manuscript pages in something very close to final draft form. I also have about eight additional chapters in fragmentary form, a couple of them fairly close to completion. But there's more that will be needed after that. I don't believe in saying, "Okay, I've got X number of pages, that's enough, I'll end the book." Each volume is a part of the overall story, but also needs its own beginning, middle, climax, and end to make for a satisfying read. As I have said here before, I am writing as fast as I can, but my first priority is to make the novel as good as it be.
