The rough draft of Hero of the Republic is complete! Even after condensing some scenes and deleting others, the novel in its raw form is over 50% longer than anything I’ve ever written. I’m hoping to slim it down more in editing, but right now there’s just not a lot of fat to cut.

Word count screenshot for Hero draft

Hero covers nearly 10 years in the TCOTU timeline (the entire original series covered roughly one year). The new book is certainly approachable if you haven’t read the first series but veterans to TCOTU will absolutely find easter eggs and a deeper understanding of the events unfolding around them. I’ve hopefully made it very worthwhile to have read the first series while reading this new one. I like to encourage reader loyalty.

This novel focuses on two primary characters (although there are plenty of other ones) and spans much of the known galaxy. In the coming weeks, I’ll blog a bit about the major players in Hero but, for now, I am basking in the glory of a completed rough draft.

Although, a funny thing is, last night, while drifting off to sleep, I was already mentally writing the opening chapters of the next book in the series.