So, how has work been going on this current eternal-seeming Arthurian project, Armes Prydein?

Well, there has been substantially more research & planning than I had originally counted on, if not in volume than certainly in time spent getting through it. The pitfalls, naturally, of having only an average of 8-10 hours a week to freely spend on such things. Travel, other commitments, and stress have also provided interruptions. However, I’m pleased with how things are going, and I think I’m not very far behind schedule.

Things are going well because rarely has a week gone by without some progress made; I can always tick off one tiny box after the next, and the boxes are adding up. The end of that research & planning now feels genuinely, meaningfully near. I think I’ve plotted out a course for wrapping up most research within the first full week of October, and I’ll be aiming to finalize preparatory documentation by the end of November. Even though this will mean that I won’t continue to actually write the novel until December, more than two and a half years after I anticipated finishing the novel in five years… I cannot overemphasize how much time I know my front-loaded prep work is going to save me.

Finishing the rough draft in May 2022 could still very much happen. Of course, I’d love to finish it even sooner, but this is what remains a realistic estimate. If I’ve done my work right, I’ll face a shorter stretch of revisions after that primary deadline, and maybe I could be pitching by the end of that year.

Now I just need to think of another story or two that I could write and publish on the side while all of this is going on, without slowing anything down. That’s a hilarious concept. Even being on track, I need more time. I need so much more time.

Llywelyn Jones