Victory is Mine, Victory is Mine!

Great day in the evening, folks…

I'm behind on the blogging, I'm afraid--I want to engage with Evangelii Gaudium, for one thing, but that will have to open December.

I have an excuse: I just finished the first complete draft of Phineas at Bay: 158,592 words. I blew past (in word length, that is, not quality) Watership Down (which was a watershed moment), and Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, which weigh in at 156,154 and 157,165, respectively.

Why have I been keeping an eye on this? Well, although in modern publishing, most new novels are recommended to be between 80-90,000 words, family sagas can go longer. And to make a proper Victorian pastiche, you want a certain length, especially if you are in the Trollope tradition. Here's a reality check: Phineas Finn is 260,343 words; Phineas Redux is 259,080. So by Trollope's standards, I'm a piker.

A piker, however, who has written his first novel (or two volumes with a cliffhanger?). So I've got that going for me.