The last week has not seen the progress I would like to have seen in writing this novel. Every writer faces the drain on his or her time, and sometimes things just get out of control. As a writer who has a “bill paying job” the demands outside of writing can crumble a schedule. I still am determined to have Dark Medicine completed by the end of September. It is just a huge race. We shall see what occurs.

How far along am I? That is more of an interesting question than the reader might think at first. The novel went missing. Yes, all of that work disappeared and the flash drive with the backup went missing. I have been writing when I have been exhausted. When I write, I have to be somewhere—anywhere other than home. As a result, I spend a lot of time writing at coffee shops. The flash drive and a remote mouse was accidently left behind at one. The mouse is gone, but I hold in my hand the flash drive. I am so thankful to the people at the coffee house for having it in their lost and found.

So, how far am I? At 327 pages (76,049 words) I am just over one-third of the way through the actual storyline. How many pages will it be? Truthfully, I don’t know the exact count. Assuming that each third of the novel is equal in length, which is a false assumption, I am looking at 800 to 900 pages. As I explained, it is a huge race to have the rough draft done in seven weeks.

Over the last few weeks I have had help from a friend in writing elements of the story. One of the characters, whom I have not described in full on any of these blogs because they are a secret, does not speak English—at first. They are a kind of vampire. (There is more than one kind of vampire? Yes, in my story and in the real research of the mythos of vampires.) This vampire is a salute to Bram Stoker. No, it is not a Dracula recreated or re-imagined. It does speak Romanian as its native tongue. Thank to my friend, who is a native of Romania, the bits of Romanian in the novel is authentic.

“But, David, I am an American! I only speak English!” The use of other languages in novels is an old technique. Even when you can’t read it and all your eyes do is glance at it, you still get the feel and the taste for it. It is like throwing in to a good cup of coffee some flavored creamer. You may not need the creamer, but it does make it tastier.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for more on the articles, blogs, novels, poems, and short stories I write.