During the month ending August 20, I wrote a 71,000-word novel.

That sounds like madness, but some people do it every year as part of National Novel Writing Month. “NaNoWriMo” takes place in November: a mega-event involving authors all over the world. But my teenage son and I stumbled across the idea this summer and decided to do it together during the 30 days before he returned to college. (Each of us wrote his own book.) The goal is actually a 50,000-word first draft, but I needed 70K to close my plot. Anyway, my son and I both “won”: finished our drafts. I’m now following advice from prior winners: brag online. I’m also eager to share.

Here’s my book’s elevator pitch:

Scott Turow meets the royal courts of Germany meets Grimm’s Fairy Tales

It’s the story of a young lawyer in a world based on the Holy Roman Empire (a.k.a. Germany) during early modern times, with light fantasy elements. I’ve always liked that empire as a milieu for a lawyer’s adventure. That’s thanks to the super-complex legal relations among the emperor and the great princes and bishops, particularly the electors, as well as the lesser nobles, free cities, warring churches, rising middle class, nascent nationalists, etc. On top of all that, I threw in chases, battles, witches, romance, political intrigue, and mythic people lurking in the woods.

A first draft is an ugly document. Creating the second will probably take many months. Then there’s the publication process. So in the unlikely event that you’re interested, the book will most likely be available to read … in 2026 (optimistic), maybe 2027 (more realistic). That’s a long time, but writing fiction is a fun side-hustle.