Writing Silence

I've written the first draft. I actually wrote five first drafts. I've finally written one which feels comfortable enough. Now I'm working on the second draft.

How do you write a book that is, in some ways, a compilation of a series? My greatest challenge right now is the characters. There have been so many, and the majority are still alive and active in the final volume. Not only that, but I've introduced a few new characters. The spouses and the children. Brad, Chris, and Joshua grew old and their children grew up. Most of them are married and have children of their own. Some of these grandchildren--Umar is a great grandfather--make their own impacts on the family. And some of the children have grown to take their father's places.

That's one of my challenges. There are too many characters, but this is the last book and I can't eliminate anyone who hasn't already died. There are deaths in Silence, but death is never trivial, is it? Characters who sprung from my mind must be disposed of properly and with dignity. Or at least with feeling.

I hope to have the last book ready for publication in 2009. It seems far away, but I know how quickly time passes when a manuscript is due. If I delay, I'll be staying up nights in 2008 and exasperating my publisher with my procrastination.

The end. I think it works. Or it's beginning to. There are still miles to go. . .