Chapter 9 is in the can at nearly 6,500 words. As luck would have it, Chapter 8 and Chapter 9 are now connected as Part 1 and 2 of the same story with a set of antagonists that in many ways are worse than the established antagonists on the ship. They are a group that is so evil they will go to any possible extent to eliminate those who they consider defective or a threat to their existence. Yes, I play the hate card, again.

If this book goes to twenty chapters it’s on course to come in at over 120,000 words, not to say I’m verbose, I’m just trying to tell a story about a set of good characters who will flock to a good place on Hercules III.

Earlier in the week, I took two days to proof and revise Chapters 1 through 8. Plus, I worked on the database I’ve established for the book. One of the major parts is a plan of each chapter detailing the characters and their ages. Also, I’ve added a new feature, a ship clock of years dating back to a revised zero after a dramatic event that occurred on the ship. This will help readers keep track of the characters as they progress to a final point somewhere in the future.

As far as the characters go, I see I’ll have to come up with some more. Right now, I have 28 characters in 3 relationship groups. I think they’re not enough to carry to story to its end and, therefore, I’ll have to come up with more. There are a wealth of living situations on the ship that can provide possible characters, it’ll just be a matter of development of the character and its storyline that logically leads to the book’s end point.

Right now, though, it’s back to Chapter 4 to pick up two characters who are having a developing storyline that needs to be moved forward in time. The only problem with the book is my original development of ages under the new order. The number of years between each physical age increases so the characters age slower and slower as they get older. Then there are the acceleration periods where the year separation increases significantly, but luckily goes back to a normal progression once acceleration ends.

Anyway, I’ve created a monster that keeps growing to the point where I need to rein it in every now and then.