The Yashevan is a novel longer than Moby Dick. I currently am expecting the third draft to weigh in at over 800 single-spaced pages and almost 500,000 words. The first elements of the story appeared to me 11 years ago, and for several years thereafter I compiled notes regarding characters, themes, plot, and the nature of the imaginary world in which the tale unfolds. Beginning in the Spring of 1997, I began to write the book in earnest. Come May 2002, I will have been wrestling with the actual text--in love as well as hate--for 5 years.
The first draft was completed following a 24 hour writing marathon punctuated by 5 hours of restless sleep in mid-January 1998 in Red Lodge, Montana. Since that exciting day, I have been engaged in the far less sexy task of revising, revising, revising. As of the day I write this (19 February 2002), I am working to complete the third draft. A fourth draft--alas--now appears inevitable, which means the book will not technically be finished until sometime in the Year of Our Lord 2003, maybe even 2004. In the meantime, not wishing to be idle on the publishing front, I intend to send the first three chapters to agents very soon. I do not expect to get any bites, but it seems silly to have written this huge book and not even try to inflict it upon the unwashed masses.
This section of my website includes the first section of the first chapter of the novel and some maps. I'm also going to set up a basic encyclopedia--eventually.