Defender Draft 1 is Complete

And today I finished the first draft of "Defender" (still a tentative title), the first book of the Defender books (less tentative), a sixish-part fantasy series.  That's assuming I get published, of course.  I'm not going to spend my life writing stuff that can't see the light of day.

It topped out at 119,000 words.  Excessively long, but I'm not that worried.  It's a first draft.  Plus I've already targeted a lot of stuff that I can cut -- characters and scenes.  I'm hoping for 90,000, but it might be around 100,000.  I dunno.  I managed to cut 40,000 words out of Black Hole Son before it was finished.

The key part is if it's good, readable, and interesting.  Is it?  Well, I think it is.  But that and a nickel will get you a hot cup of JACK SQUAT.

And of course, the question I find myself asking is "now what"?  I need to let the thing incubate for a while.  I've got short story revisions to work on.  I guess this means I'm a real writer.  I'm looking for the next thing to write instead of being exhausted and saying thank goodness I don't have to write anything for a while.