Well, that's it. Out of words and out of time. Just completed the first edit of The Children of Lir. Shaved off about 3.4%, down from 123,457 to around 119,212 but up from 263 to 309 on the page count, what with sectioning added.
Sent it off to my beta readers, with more than a twist of trepidation. I have no idea what to think about this one. Hopefully it's not so bad I'll need to shred it, but I have my doubts about the second half. No point worrying over it - can't anyway, far, far too much work to do over the next couple of months. How I've managed to get this draft finished is a miracle.
Just thought I'd finish up posting about my swan song by mentioning the website Legendary Love: A Queer History Project by Brandon Buehring. I have only just stumbled upon it as I was thinking about what sort of image to put with this wrap-up. Which themes have stayed with me from the novel, and which characters have surprised me more than others.
The theme of Cú Cuchulainn and Ferdiad, warriors of the legendary Fianna, repeats itself at times throughout the story. The point of Buehring's website is to reclaim sexual stories that have been sanitised and heterosexualised - or plain hijacked - by the Romans and early Christians. It's a return to the celebration of how certain cultures saw the world.
He's produced a nice essay on Cú Cuchulainn and Ferdiad, calling to mind Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles and his lover, Patroclus.
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| Cú Cuchulainn and Ferdiad County Louth |
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