Joe Abercrombie's A Red Country update

Joe Abercrombie posted an update about his upcoming novel, A Red Country.  He has finished his first draft of the whole novel and the words count so far is at 171 000 words, making it his shortest book (even though, as he mentions, after the edits, it could change a bit). He offers some words count for his previous books but here's the complete list:

Blade Itself - 194,000

Before they are Hanged - 200,00

Last Argument of Kings -  236,000

Best Served Cold - 230,000

The Heroes - 207,000

Even more interestingly, he also confirms the release date in the US, which will be on November 20th 2012 and it will be out in the UK in September or October.

Here's an extract of his post and the link:

Joe's blog

Finished the first draft of A Red Country today.  Well, kind of finished.  Any of you who’ve been through this process with me before will remember that there is a lot of work to do between writing the final words and seeing the book on the shelves.  Some of the most important work.  But also some of the most satisfying.  This is the part I really enjoy, cutting, refining, seeing the poor parts chopped away and the good parts refined and the whole hopefully coming into shape.  This week I’ll look over and tidy up this last part before sending it off to my editor, and then it’s a quick read through to see what I’ve got, some additions and heavy rewriting of one of the two central characters.  But hey, it’s a step in the right direction.

The synopsis again you ask? There you go:

“Shy South comes home to her farm to find a blackened shell, her brother and sister stolen, and knows she’ll have to go back to bad old ways if she’s ever to see them again.  She sets off in pursuit with only her cowardly old step-father Lamb for company.  But it turns out he’s hiding a bloody past of his own.  None bloodier.  Their journey will take them across the lawless plains, to a frontier town gripped by gold fever, through feuds, duels, and massacres, high into unmapped mountains to a reckoning with ancient enemies, and force them into alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, a man no one should ever have to trust…”