Not much news lately, but I have hit the 50% mark on The Pillars Of Being. Over the hump!

The book’s taken on most of its shape now, with the world building essentially complete. The setting is dry, hot and lonely, with inspiration pulled from Ethiopian (and other) salt-flats. Animal life is rare, besides the odd vulture and the giant centipede-esque creatures that call the plains their home. It is to the canyons in this desolate space that the caravan in which the story is set must venture to acquire magic for trade. Every trip is a risk, for coming down from the basalt columns bordering the plains puts the caravan in danger from the floods that regularly swamp the land.

Already fraught with peril, things get much worse when the trade caravan’s officer of the law is murdered, and the only one with the skills to investigate is her young, partially trained apprentice.