The Castle in the Story is now in revision

A long time ago I wrote a novel called The Castle in the Story. I put it online and moved on to other things because this was back in the day when posting a story online meant it could never, ever be actually published. And because it was the first novel I’d ever finished, I didn’t look back because, you know, first novels are always garbage. *rolls eyes*

I wrote quite a few more after that, including Shining Armor and The Baker’s Wife, as well as a few that have yet to see the light of day.

And then one day, on a whim, I went back and re-read that first novel.

And I liked it.

Obviously, there were problems, but the core of the story was interesting. Heck, most of the story was written in a way that caught me up in it again.

And then I went on and did other things, though perhaps with a bit more self-confidence.

Last week, I went to take care of something at the site where I’d posted it (I’m rarely there nowadays), and found a request for the sequel.

I’d mentioned writing one but I’d never seen the enormous interest I’d hoped would come after I finished posting. Just one here and one there over the years, asking when I was going to write the rest of the story.

But when I saw that latest request, I realized the world I was writing in now wasn’t the same as the one that had existed when I’d first put The Castle in the Story online.

I wasn’t taking time from building my career if I decided to work on this series again.

It was such a stunning realization that I’m still not quite over it. Even while I was printing out a copy of the story for revision, I was stunned that I was actually seeing a physical copy of something I’d written over ten years ago. I’m not sure how the story will look after I’m done with it, but the structure is good, a number of the scenes are good (more than I’d expected) and I’m almost giddy from looking at it.

More soon.

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