Several years ago I had a month where I thought I really hadn't written much of anything, and, depressed, went to look at my wordcount. It turned out I had written 83K in that month, and I still don't know how I'd concluded I'd done no work worth mentioning in that time.

I've just obliterated that record. I've done 91,000 words in 19 days. I have written a book in 19 days: I have just finished MOUNTAIN ECHOES, Book 8 of the Walker Papers. It was 10,500 words long when I sat down to start writing on the morning of March 12. Now it is 101,200 words long, and I…

…am freaking awesome, actually, thank you for asking. :)

It's become increasingly clear to me over the years that the more detailed an outline I have the more quickly I can write a book, and noticing I had no plot in place for MOUNTAIN ECHOES did sort of make it necessary to hammer out a thorough outline. Three weeks is still massively faster than anything else I've ever done–I've done two 70K novels in 4 weeks each, previously, but this is a full-length 100K book. My attention span for a book, as my husband pointed out years ago, is about 6 weeks–after that I want to go do something else. Writing one in 3 weeks is…actually probably kind of ideal, although not practical, as it does become my total and sole focus.

Holy crap. Wow. I was aiming to have this thing done by the 5th, which would still have been Very Fast Indeed, but *damn*, sistah. 19 days. *Damn*!

Excuse me while I go pat myself on the back, okay? :)

and now holy *beans* there is only one book left in the walker papers! eek! eek! EEEEEK!!!!!