So this happened last night. The first draft of “The Many Dreams of Annabelle Cloud” is done. Twenty Six chapters. 83k words – anywhere between 35O to 450 pages depending on final layout.

This has been over 13 years in the making. I wrote the opening of what would become this story March 2013 in the Bewley Hotel (now Clayton) in Leopardstown, Dublin.

It became a germ of a novel a few years later and then my sole focus a few years after that. When Fergus suggested that my current novels- The Children of the Dreamgate, and The Lily Wood Trail – were maybe too big, or complex for me at the time. He wasn’t wrong.

Annabelle Cloud became a way to help me transition from short stories to a larger canvas. That conceit is built in to the story – or so I intended.

Over the years life got in the way. My brain got in the way. And I managed to over complicate this one as well.

This month I managed to break a deadlock. I deleted stuff that I’d been hanging on to but couldn’t resolve. Ideas that seemed good at the time – but could never find the payoff.

I drilled down on everything else a slowly brought a number of loose ends together. This in turn suggested ideas that replaced the ones I’d removed – and momentum brought me here.

I still have a long way to go. This first edit has to deal with almost 12 years of writing. I am sure there will be consistency problems. I am sure there will be continuity issues to now to iron out.

But for the first time – the story is told. Now it just needs some polish and TLC.