Crossing the Stream

When I hear the phrase "crossing the stream," Bill Murray's voice immediately sounds in my head. "Excuse me, Egon, you said crossing the streams was bad."

Yeah, it's been a while since I posted here. But work on The Sorcerer's Apprentice continues apace. I attended Mythmoot IV in Leesburg, VA earlier this month, and I read a scene from Apprentice in the Wild. All in all, I thought it went really well. The audience was receptive, and people still wanted to talk to me about it the next day.

The scene I read involves a party, including Abanoub, venturing into the Wild in search for Wulfhere. The "border" of the Wild is an enchanted stream they have to cross. I meant this bit as a tribute to J.R.R. Tolkien and The Hobbit, where there is also a crossing of an enchanted stream. My characters want to cross the stream without touching the water, and, as in The Hobbit, one of them falls in and is changed by the experience. Although that's where the similarity ends. My character, unlike Bombur, does not go into an enchanted sleep. It's more complicated than that.

So I felt encouraged by the reception the scene got. Apprentice in the Wild, the first book in the trilogy, is now more or less complete, and weighs in at 113,000 words. I'm three chapters into the second book, The Return of the King, or 15,000 words. Do you suppose they'll let me keep that title?