Richard Authier Lee

It’s a small victory and a long way to remains to go, but I’m happy to share that I passed the 20,000-word milestone on my next novel, Artifical Horizon. A prequel/sequel to my first novel “High Ground,” the new book includes the core characters from the first, but will also involve some new characters from a remote island ten miles off the coast of Maine. I have some general thoughts about where the novel might go, but the first draft is always a voyage of discovery where you place your characters in a situation, let them go to see where they will run. Hopefully,  somewhere interesting. I can assure you this: there will be NO contemporary American politics involved. You’re welcome.

If you read it, you probably know the main theme of my first novel was forgiveness. In this book, the theme will be how differences can so readily divide us, but crisis can so quickly unite us. Hey, I spent 30 years in the Red Cross and this was my takeaway. So, sue me.

As you may know, I’m doing this crazy writing marathon as a part of NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month held in November each year as a motivation to help writers crank out the first 50,000 words of their next novel. That works out to around 1,700 words a day on average. Word to the wise: it’s harder than it looks. Ow! Ow! Ow!

Read Sample Chapters of “High Ground”