Triptych First Draft: Katsu's Story Complete

Well, that took longer than expected, but the first draft chapters of The Pantheon Triptych from Katsu Kuzara's perspective are complete. That's roughly one-third of the novel done. Roughly. I might be wrong.

There were multiple reasons why it took so long. At first, it took me a while to get properly back into Katsu's head and fully flesh out his companions on his journey across Pantheon. I'm pleased with how that went in the end.

Then I decided to bite the bullet and replace my ageing MacBook, which couldn't run the latest versions of all the software I use. It had also been becoming somewhat unreliable, so the release of the (relatively) cheap and powerful Mac Mini M4 was too hard to resist. I was under budget for this year, so thought it would be safe. Yeah, right, but we'll come to that.

It's an impressive little product, and I took a few days out to reconfigure my workspace around it. After a bit of research, I've completely removed the need for my Windows laptop. That's a first. It was worth the effort.

Then a series of problems sapped my ability to get any momentum in my writing, with regular distractions popping up, from the trivial to the major. It started in a small way, with the tumbler drier breaking. At least that was fixable, even if it took a few weeks to get the part.

Something innocuous then triggered a series of events. A 2-hour water cut in the area caused a leak in the cloakroom, but I cleared that up easily enough – only to discover that a similar leak had occurred under the bath. That seeped through the ceiling and brought a two-metre stretch of plaster down in the kitchen. Had to get the plasterboard replaced too.

That was fun. At least the plumbing's fixed now, the ceiling replastered, and just got it repainted in time for Christmas. What I didn't spot though was that the dampness under the bath had caused three tiles to become detached and the grouting to crack. So when I had a shower, the water leaked through and seeped into the electrics, leaving me without power for a bit.

So, I repaired the tiles, dried out the electrics, and started getting the kitchen back together. I'd had to move the fridge freezer out in the hallway when the electricity was off, as that was one of the few places with power, thanks to it being in the extension. Naturally, it objected to all the movement and decided to die too. It was old and rusty, so I decided it was time for a new fridge freezer. And microwave. And office chair. I was on a roll by then.

To round things off nicely, my second cat came down with diabetes too, if for a different reason than the first. At least we got that under control quickly, thanks to some new oral medication. That was the most expensive thing of all!

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, I was supposed to be talking about my book. All that left me somewhat behind schedule, but I was determined to get Katsu's thread in the story finished before Christmas, and I've done it – just. My son will be arriving tomorrow, so that was cutting it fine.

I did have one major panic. I was about to begin the last Katsu chapter when I spotted a plot hole so large that my characters were on the wrong side of the planet than I needed them to be. That took a day to reconcile, starting with reworking the world map and then some (surprisingly minor) tweaks to the earlier chapters. The map now looks like this (yes, it's looking scrappier all the time):

Despite everything, I ended up with the same six chapters I planned initially, even if the action breaks between them shifted somewhat. They're now called (prefixed by "Katsu:"):

• The Director

• The Mine

• The Manifestation

• The New Flux

• The River

• The Island

The word count for these chapters is 27,800, which, together with the other opening chapters, gives me a total of 37,400 so far. That'll do.

After Christmas, once I've stopped eating, I'll pick up Tomlin Gaudy's story. These are the planned chapters (all prefixed by "Tomlin and"):

• The Presenter (already drafted)

• The Boxer

• The Actress

• The Artist

• The Chimera

• The Spy

• The Heir

Then, all that will be left is to fill in the gaps from Steffan's first-person perspective. That's where the real challenge will start. It'll be a bit like a jigsaw puzzle.

Right, that's all for now. As you can see at the top, I'm still playing with colour schemes for the cover, although I am happy with the overall design.

Wishing all my readers a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

Okay, now where's the bottle opener?