Well, I’d love to report that SHADA, the short novel that will introduce the EMBER series to the world, is complete at this point. But it’s not.

At the moment, SHADA is over 25,000 words in length, but the novel’s just now reaching its denouement. It will definitely last through the 30,000 word benchmark, and could even see 35,000 words on the horizon before it’s done.

This is not a result of poor plotting or anything like that; it’s a result of me not wanting to hurry the story along. I want to give the narrative room to breathe and be a reflection of the lives of the main characters, rather than a headlong rush to the closing action and a hurried finish.

I’m fully committed to making even a short novel feel like a complete story, a complete and unique experience all its own. That is why SHADA is stretching out the way it is. Sure, I’d love to be done with the story, move on to the next step and start saying when the short novel will debut. But I can’t. Not until the story is done. That’s not something a writer wants to rush through.