The end of the Path

Early this morning, Path of the Hunter finally came to an end. It's finished, closing in at just over 93k (total's on the right bar there) which is almost 7k less than I had anticipated. That's okay though, 100k was an average ballpark number. I would have gotten a little worried if it was heading into 110k and still not finished, lol

While I was printing it out (which I couldn't finish, btw - my inks died) I got to thinking about the past couple years since I start researching the publishing industry - and what kind of trouble I could have gotten into. As much as I'd like to think that I'd be smart enough to avoid scammers, it's easy for me to say that I would right now. I know better. I know the warning signs, I know who the vermin in the industry are and I know that experience and a track record trump all. But when I started POTH I didn't know squat in comparison. It would have been very likely that I might have actually fallen for one of those scams or thought someone inexperienced was really going to do something for me, and end up with a story I can't do anything with. Not to mention I very likely would have been rejected by every agent and publisher on the planet at the same time because I didn't know squat about query letters either :P For a long time I hated that there was that three year gap between NaNo '06 when I first wrote it and these past several weeks when I actually went back to it and finished it, but now I'm grateful. Because I didn't have anything worth querying but wanted desperately to be published the only thing I was really left with was researching. I ended up being spared learning a lot of things the hard way (as is usually my way) thanks to all that research I ended up doing. Now I don't know everything, and I'd never say that, but now that I do have a finished manuscript I think I can safely say I'll be able to at least give it a good shot to agents and publishers. At the very least, my editing skills will definitely improve :D I'm trying not to focus on the querying part too much right now, but I feel really good about it. And enjoyed the chocolates I treated myself to.

I'm feeling really 'wow, it's really over' though. Kind of like I don't know what to do with myself. Well, I know what I should be doing, the enthusiasm just isn't there. I could easily push into another story, but I was actually pretty productive today in the absense of my writing drive. Most importantly I got my balcony tidied up, we have a fire inspection coming up. Plus it'll be easier to get all of that crap out now. This year we're decking out the balcony for sure - outdoor carpet, plants, a little bistro set and a couple of wind chimes. Tomorrow night we go back to visit the breeder and see the babies. Hopefully pictures will come!