The time is before the Prophecy, and a young Lucius Malfoy is sent to explore the disappearance of a Death Eater family. When he comes across their bodies, he calls on Severus to assist him. Together they have to figure out the mystery behind the murder, and deal with the revelation of the Prophecy – and how Lucius and Narcissa’s son might be involved.

Project: As the Seventh Month Dies (Working)
For: Lucius Big Bang
Deadline: September 1, 2011
New words written: 1,744
Present total word count: 4,079
Total Word Count for 2011: 36,158

Coming along quite nicely! I’m really enjoying the forensic investigation Lucius and Severus are having to do here. I like to think that they had a lot of work like this to do earlier on in their career, when the Death Eaters were more of a budding organization and not quite the killing machine they become. I’m coming along with a decent outline as I go too, so the story is slowly pulling together — like that werewolf from The Monster Squad!

Sorry, couldn’t resist! Jeez that is such a fun show! Used to love it as a kid, and it’s still campy fun. =)

This story is probably going to be way longer than the 10k minimum requirement, but I’m going to stick with my deadline for the end of July. I still have to get my beta reader to peruse it for me, so I have to make sure she has ample time. And I’m still planning on signing up for the Zombie (Big) Bang. With only a 5k word requirement, surely I can get that without too much sweat!

It’s nice to have some fanfiction to get me away from the editing headache of my novel for a bit. I realized I’ll need to rewrite the entire first chapter, and every time I’ve been trying to think of how to do it, I come to a block. I’m anxious to continue the series, but I know that polishing the first book is a big requirement to getting the second book really going. I don’t want to rush it. I want the first book to have a nice feel and a good flow. Not to mention that if I change facts around, then there’s less to change for the following books. So fanfiction writing is really helping me keep my writing flow running smoothly while I think on how to revise. Why are first chapters so difficult?