Very pleased to be making actual progress on this thing. I'm hoping to have a full draft done by mid-August, ready to start showing to agents. And do second draft (and hopefully final draft) revisions in the fall. I don't know if anyone will publish this book or not -- I like it a lot, but no guarantee publishers will -- but regardless, I think it'll be very good for me to have actually written and finished a good book this year.
It'll be my first fiction book since the HarperCollins novel crashed and burned, five years ago, sending me into a long, dark writing depression. Finishing a new book will be something to celebrate.
Of course -- it's in theory the first book of a trilogy, so even if I do finish it, there are two more books to write. But that's a problem for another year. :-)