Status Update 2

The book is moving along nicely. It was just last night that I broke 75,000 words. There is nothing significant about this number, per se, but it does seem to be a good number to report as it signifies 3/4 of 100,000 which is a nice round number. The book currently has 232 pages, but is without spaces for chapters and other such things. If you included those it might be possible to consider that the book has 250 pages. Despite my earlier suggestions to the contrary, the book might reach 300 typed pages in the first draft. I do not wish to rush the ending, but neither do I wish to draw it out needlessly. We shall see.

In other bright news, I passed my SAS Certification Exam. I need 65% and I got 71%. A narrow margin of victory, but a victory all the same. This means I am officially recognized by the SAS organization as a beginning programmer. The next step is to get my advanced programmer certification, but I hope that this will help me get employment.

And finally, because I said I would do so I am going to post an excerpt from my book. The following is the prologue. This is sort of a cheat because I plan on rewriting the prologue entirely, but I thought you might enjoy reading the short passage before it changes. Please remember that this is the first draft. And of that first draft these were the first words written.

"The world was young. It was just barely half a millennium in age. Still, in that time there had been two major wars, a few minor scuffles, one brief invasion (though it hardly deserved the title) and an altercation that had scarred the world. True, the damage was not irreversible, but healing the wound often made you forget why the injury had occurred in the first place.
God sighed. A power struggle was about to take place. While he would not take part personally, he felt a sense of despair at what his follower’s would have to go through. His Disciple would have his hands full protecting his followers this time. Of course, his follower’s had given him a chance to ponder lately about what they needed. The content of their prayer’s had been changing. Less and less were they asking for His aid, more and more they were pleading for him to send His Disciple to help them with their problems.
His disciple, for his part, seemed happy to help them. However, he was getting old. He had served faithfully longer than any man was intended to live. Still, every morning he rose and conducted his morning prayers and sought how to best accomplish the Will of God. God had never intended for him to serve so long. However, he was so good at it and a suitable replacement had never been around. Still, times were changing. The world was changing. Maybe He needed to change as well.
Maybe it was time His Disciple sat one out."