"It's happening again..."

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while may remember a post entitled something along the lines of "One tenth in one week. I think I'm onto something," in which I noted that I had written ten thousand words of "He Nearly Killed the Cat" in one week's time.

Today is Saturday. I started working on The Highwayman's Apprentice on Wednesday. Its current word count stands at 10,185.

Granted, many of those words will go to backstory only, or will have to be chopped and changed around, placed in different parts of the story, but that's not the point. The point is, I have a truly hot little piece of work here, and people sound very interested in it.

So, since some people seem to have gotten ideas about Christmas (where, I can't imagine. No, seriously, I really don't know. Did I say something about Christmas without meaning to?), I'll make it official.

Who would like an Anne B. Walsh original fantasy novel, The Highwayman's Apprentice, for Christmas 2011?

*shakes head* I can hardly believe you haven't met them yet. They're all so real to me. They have names and lives and feelings and desires, and they want you to know about them, to understand what it is that they want and why they did what they did.

They caught me, as I hope they will catch you, from that very first moment, when a young nobleman, forced to flee from the law, wounded and half-dead from fever, stumbles into a forest clearing and frightens three children, prompting the boy to defend his sister and their cousin...