I’m nearing completion of Part 1 of We Left as Dust. If I haven’t mentioned this, the book is split into three parts. I’m not going to go into detail as far as plot goes, but I’m hoping the end of Part 1 works out how I’m intending it. I’m looking forward to getting on to Part 2. The end of Part 1 is going to mark a shift in the main character, and I’m looking forward to exploring where that takes him. Things are going to get real interesting real fast.
I got fairly bogged down during the last fourth of Part 1. I’m not exactly sure why, since I’ve known exactly where I wanted it to go for a long time. I guess I was sort of struggling with having everything feel natural, which is very important to me. I want things to lead themselves along, rather than having to rein them in and have it feel forced. Making it feel organic is paramount to having the reader buy into the story. I just know that when I go back to edit this, I’m going to rewrite a lot of lines of dialog that sounded natural at the time, but in hindsight just sound a bit… fake.
The other authors I’m working worth are a bit behind me. I’m over 36,000 words, while I think they’re in the mid-to-high teen-thousands (I just made that word up.) We still haven’t come up with a good name for the series yet, but when we do, I hope to give the series its own website and start posting a few teasers that will start building the world before the books even come out. Got some fun ideas for that. Just need to come up with a series title, dang it!
Alright, that’s all for now.
–J.
The Hammer of Thor 
I have just finished Aftermath and I have to say, you wrote a wonderful conclusion to the story. I played TLOU on my sons PS3 and got caught up in the story. It played like a good book, and when I was finished, I wanted more. I immediately went out and bought my own PS3 to play it again, sort of rereading the book. The characters were so well developed that I felt there was more to happen to them. And I hated leaving them. Your story put it exactly the way it should have continued, their difficulty adjusting, their devotion to each other, and the survival of mankind, what it would be like to have to start again.
You have made a beautiful story. I look forward to reading your novel.
Thank you,
Peggy Coffey
Sweet! I can’t wait to read it!! Don’t work too hard!!