20,000!

The WIP continues to streak along -- and let me tell you, I'm more surprised than anyone. For me, this is positively speeding. I've had a run of 1,000+ word days on the first draft, and so yesterday I passed through the 20,000 word mark, about a week before my own best guess at when I'd hit it. In fact, as of this morning, the manuscript is at 21,000, and there's all afternoon to work on it.

Considering that I put the first word down on the novel on May 6, that's 20K words in less than a month. I don't think I've ever done that before... and if I have, it hasn't happened often. I'm usually satisfied with half that.

So: only a few of you stalwarts bothered to give me a date as to when I'd pass 20,000. The closest guesses were from Traci Castleberry (tcastleb) and J. Sabatier. I said I was going to pick one, but hey, I'm feeling good about the progress, so you both win. Give me a shout at "sleigh (AT) farrellworlds.com" (making the appropriate substitution for (AT) and closing up the space), and tell me which Stephen Leigh/S.L. Farrell/ Matthew Farrell novel you'd like to have, whether or not you want it signed and personalized (and to whom if the latter), as well as your mailing address, and I'll ship your prize out to you.

Maybe I'll do another contest for 50,000...