State of Writing

I’m so close to having this short story done! It’s taken me almost as long to write as my last novel… partly because of content and partly because of my schedule. This is my last super crazy week, though, and I do hope to finish it this week.

“Grandma Ethel’s Donuts and Hollowpoints.” Grandma Ethel’s got a long day ahead of her: a pile of cancer medications, a fistful of bullets, and a plate full of donuts. Good thing her car does 0 to 60 in 3.5 seconds… if only she could see over the steering wheel.

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State of Writing

As fast as I usually am, this short story is going slow. I’ve been slogging through a lot of junk on the business side of things (in addition to it being maybe the busiest time of the year for me). I’m still gonna cross my fingers that I finish the story this week… we’ll see. I’m about a quarter done with it and I’ve already got solid notes for the next short story I’d like to write (plus a rewrite on another one which establishes it as a series.)

I did have a good time at the B&N author panel for MN based SF/F writers. We had a decent crowd, in fact, and I was glad to be a part of it… though it was more of an informative event than a buying one and so I’ve got a bit of an overstock on books so I’m trying to get back to that store by the end of summer to move some books (if you’re near Roseville, stop in at the HarMar location and pick one up!)

Also, I’ve had some great conversations with some folks who hold the keys to awesome opportunities. (I’m in preliminary talks with a company who owns some old TSR rights to write a story in their universe… there were only a few books in an old series, but one of them was an old favorite of mine!)

 

State of Writing

Very little writing done this week… But I guess it’s not all about the keyboard. I did get a few very minor things accomplished. Mostly, however, I worked on my rental property that got trashed by renters (but at least they also jacked me on 5 months rent, too.) I’ve spent every spare scrap of time these last two months doing major renovations and I finally finished! The market’s hot, so hopefully I can flip this thing and recoup some lost income and pay down debts!

As for my goals, I did not finish my short story. I don’t think I can venture a guess about its eta. I’m pretty well consumed by this month of camps I’m in charge of. It’s a ton of spinning plates and it seems that people are insisting on trying to knock them off.

Still, keep your fingers crossed. I might yet get to it. Also, please stop by and visit the big SF/F event at Roseville MN Barnes and Noble that I’m co-hosting with some friends this Saturday! It’s gonna be a fun one.

State of Writing

Almost forgot to do this! (I usually write them the evening prior).

I had a good week at the big statewide comic convention… I got to connect with some friends and buy some cool stuff in addition to selling a bunch of books and meet lots of new people.

I didn’t write much… I started a piece of short fiction that I’m working on, but it may take a bit to complete, and I’m not worried about that. My current focus is on the convention scene and promoting some events I’ll be at (the June 9 multi-author book signing and my upcoming con this weekend: Manticon, a sci-fi convention I’m excited to be at… Timothy Zahn will be there and I’m totally stoked. If I don’t post on monday, it’s because I’m in jail for stalking.)

My goals this week are not for writing: they are to paint the exterior of my investment property so I can put it up for sale by June 1. I’d also like to have something to report on the 3 Maesters Literarium, by then, but it’s out of my hands.

 

State of Writing

Not much happening this last week… still under crazy workloads that I can’t let slip because of deadlines so I’m burning the midnight oil there and any leftover time is going into a house I’m renovating and trying to flip. It’s so close to being done!

I did manage to start sketching out a few short stories and even wrote an opening scene for one. I may finish it this week. That’s my only real writing goal—I’m prepping for a weekend convention with the rest of my time and trying to get folks to show up to my metro area book event on June 9.

If you are in the MPLS/St.Paul area this weekend, come say hello at the MCBA Comic Convention at the State Fairgrounds.

State of Writing

I rather lost track of all time amid a hectic week (and my last couple book reviews did not autopost, although they went to Amazon/Goodreads since I manually do those.) Anyhow, I forgot to write an update on Monday, so here I am doing it today. Between being sick and crazy busy with work life, I feel like I didn’t do much last week. Hindsight disproves that.

Last week, my third Kakos Realm novel went live, as did the Kakos Realm 3 book compilation. I also nailed down a lot of details and some media for a big author event I’m running that Barnes & Noble is hosting, plus got a promo blitz planned for the TKR series… (and in a month I get to do all of this again, but for the Wolves of the Tesseract book).

No writing or editing last week… just some reading, and lots of work on the side. I ought to start some short fiction this week, perhaps.

State of Writing

 

The first book in my new series is DONE! The rough draft for Hoods of the Red Order weighs in at just under 50,000 words but I still plan to write the prologue and epilogue–though I hope to write the pro/epi for all 5 books at once since they tie the 5 together in continuity.

Lots of other big news. The Kakos Realm 3 is now live and available for purchase! Death Upon the Fields of Splendor should be available anywhere you get paperbacks… still working on the Smashwords edition that will push to BN, Kobo, etc. I should get around to audio by this summer.

Wolves of the Tesseract #2, Through the Darque Gates of Koth is also now completed. I want to launch that on June 1 and do a release party at my huge multiauthor event happening on June 9 at Har Mar Barnes and Noble.

I’m hoping to indulge in a few weeks of rest, queries for other books I’ve written, and short fiction writing now 🙂 and then on to the next book!

State of Writing

Well, the good news is that I will definitely be finishing Hoods of the Red Order this week. Technically, I finished it already, but I wanted to add a foreshadowing segment that builds the characters up better and so I sketched out a small 1-2 ch subplot which I will write this week to complete the chapters of the book. (I have a prologue and epilogue forthcoming, but the epi/pro will stitch together to form a separate narrative that ties into the last book and gives the backstory of the major villain and a couple supporting characters in book 5 and so I want to write that entire piece as one and then break it into manageable chunks to split it up).

Over the weekend I blitzed down to Nebraska for some bagpiping and then back up to SD for another gig before returning home. I might’ve otherwise completed the book in its entirety. I have big plans for this week as well, including completing my publishing files for TKR3: Death Upon the Fields of Splendor and the TKR Alpha Collection.

Also, I am speaking at a library in New Ulm on Thursday and then again this weekend as a part of the Marshall Area Fine Arts Council on independent publishing. Hope to see some of your smiling faces there!

State of Writing

This weather is getting straight up ridiculous. Snow made me miss a speaking engagement for the Minnspec group in the twin cities (bummer—I was really looking forward to it.)

I did get my chapters done, however. Hoods of the Red Order is currently sitting at 20 complete chapters and 40,000 words (technically it’s already a novel… it’s just a little light.) Another two chapters this week and again next week and it’ll be done! After my current book is completed I plan to begin pre-work in earnest on launching TKR3 and work out final kinks on Wolves of the Tesseract 2 for May and June launches.

Reading has been slow, however. I don’t have any book reviews ready for this week. I’m overwhelmed with this other house project in my spare time and I’m only halfway through my next book. I anticipate finishing it this week and then maybe I’ll start on Beren and Luthien.

State of Writing

I’ve had a heck of a time lately. Between snowstorm after snowstorm and a crazy workload as of late I’d normally feel frazzled. But over Easter one of my renters moved out after some major nonpayment issues (they trashed the place and I’ve spent most of my spare time hauling trash, replacing carpets, painting, and cleaning). You’d think I would’ve fallen behind… but remember what I said weeks ago about how I tend to fixate on my writing during the last third of my book or so? I’m way ahead of schedule and still making time to write. I’m only 16-18,000 words from completion and plowed into the climax chapters last week… Hoods of the Red Order is planned as fairly short by comparison (about 50,000 words, YA) and currently sits at over 31,000 words, with 16 chapters written.

I’m still on target! woohoo!

Some of the other stuff I made sure to do was revamp my Amazon Marketing Services ads for a couple books and run a promo on Dekker’s Dozen because I was accidentally locked into a new term for KDP that was expiring soon (so use the promo or lose the option). I did no media and zero advertising of The Last Watchmen being free on Kindle as an experiment to see how effective my adverts normally are. It got over a hundred downloads over a few days. My books usually do several hundred per day with free ads and other media blasts that have no cost. It’s an important lesson that I wanted to see for myself: authors must always be promoting.