Ed Calkins Updates His Progress on "Ruthless"

Over the past few weeks, Ed Calkins, Steward of Tara, has sent two updated versions of his upcoming BryonySeries novel Ruthless.

Then we had a phone chat to set up an editing timeline (the book is scheduled for release mid-January so he'll have copies before Calkins Day 2021) and deadlines for cover and interior art, which I sent via telegram (i.e. email) after we hung up

Ed has since sent more chapters and the following correspondence. You will note he addresses me by his first nickname for me ("goddess") as opposed to the BryonySeries one (MOMI - Mistress of My Immortality).

So as I had into my second writing retreat of 2021 with three goals, I have just added a fourth: edit one chapter a day of Ruthless. As the steward himself said in Staked!, "? I’m so dyslexic and scatterbrained, even spell-check doesn’t recognize my words.”

And these are very true words, spoken to me by Ed one morning at the dock of the distribution center, as I was heading out.

So editing his prose is an adventure. But so is reading it. Ed is a good writer, full of imagination and unpredictable humor.

The challenge will be staying on task with my own work and not getting lost is his.

 Dear Goddess,

Sorry about the half month delay. I finished very late at night. It took two days to recover sleep wise and after that, every time I went to send it to you, I got to editing instead. 

I consider this a first draft, but I expect to have the final draft before Thanksgiving. There's been some plot changes. The chap called Forward is of course the Forward....the Chap called Backward is now the first chapter. There is one chapter I didn't write yet ...Counsel of Scantily Clothed Merrows..which I hoping to use to include anything I forgot to write as I read my novel for the first time.

I don't know what to do about the changes. I've rewritten the Forward, Backward, and Pigs Don't Plow....that went quickly. Now I'm rewriting the first chapter I jotted down when I was trying to get a sense of what a back story would look like. 

So much has changed, but...

I promise not to change the stuff I send you now.       

Ruthlessly yours,

Ed Calkins, Steward of Tara