So, yeah, it has been brought to my attention that I’ve been maintaining radio silence while working on Palace of Scoundrels, so sorry about that. I’ve been focusing on finishing the damn book so much that I kinda forgot, “Uh, you have a blog? And people might like to know how things are going?”

So yeah, we are now officially into the home stretch, as seen at left. I strongly doubt this will be the final word count — I have at least two major scenes to insert while doing the rewrite, and I’m guessing it’ll top out more around 73K. But that’s still a chunky little piece of high fantasy erotic romance, so for all of you who are looking for fixes to your GOT jones just hang on for another week.

(I am still absolutely boggled that I’m writing high fantasy erotic romance. But damn it, this world is just so much fun.)

Also, while we’re on the topic of GOT, if you’re a fellow fan of that delightfully tall drink of Scottish water Rory McCann (Sandor “The Hound” Clegane), might I suggest that you track down a British comedy TV series called The Book Group on Hulu? It’s from 2002 and stars Anne Dudek, who played House fellow applicant/Wilson’s girlfriend Amber on House, and is the story of a rather neurotic American named Clare who moves to Glasgow and starts a book group to meet people. The other members of the group include three footballers’ wives (one of whom is played by the goddess Michelle Gomez, also known as Missy/The Master on Doctor Who), a rather sweetly clueless guy named Rab who is secretly having an affair with Michelle’s footballer husband, an obnoxious hipster played by James Lance, and McCann’s character Kenny, who is a kindly lifeguard at a local leisure center. Kenny’s also in a wheelchair after what we presume is a climbing accident, and the writers do a great job of not turning him into the Magical Paraplegic or giving him Very Special Episode moments. He’s got a couple of issues, not to mention crap taste in girlfriends, but he’s still one of the better-adjusted people in the group along with Rab, and his low level flirtation with Clare goes everywhere from exasperation to genuine friendship.

Also, it’s really nice to hear McCann using his own accent–he’s got this amazing young Sean Connery thing going on. Pity he was depilating his chest at the time, but one can’t have everything, I suppose.