As you read this, I am way in Modena, to attend a gaming convention, and my editor is reading the somewhat messy first draft plus of my second novel.

It’s been hard going.
The novel still does not have a title, but I know it’s built in four parts, each of them with its own title and two quotes to set the mood.
The fourth part is called The politics of the rat and the snake, and it’s been the hardest one to read because i had a somewhat clear idea of what was going to happen, but I did not know how it would actually happen, and most important I did not know how my characters would face the challenge.

But then I settled on two quotes that helped me not only get the mood of my conclusion, but also to see, more or less, where I should go, and how with my story.
The two quotes are as follows…

Kind-hearted people might of course think there was some ingenious way to disarm or defeat the enemy without too much bloodshed, and might imagine this is the true goal of the art of war. Pleasant as it sounds, it is a fallacy that must be exposed: War is such a dangerous business that mistakes that come from kindness are the very worst.
(Carl von Clausewitz)

Silence the angry man with love. Silence the ill-natured man with kindness. Silence the miser with generosity. Silence the liar with truth.
(Gautama Buddha)

The final draft will hopefully work out all the kinks.
But that’s for next week to see.