I didn’t have any goals for last week. That set the bar pretty low, which is a good thing because I wasn’t doing too hot. We had a lot of cold and rain early in the week, but then things got warmer. So my sinuses decided that I needed to know a new definition of pain and my energy was always one step away from drained. Gave me a good excuse to keep watching ‘Supernatural’ and take my time with things.
Hopefully, the Chasing Bedlam cover is ready to reveal this coming Thursday. I’ll be doing the release after the Super Bowl because I don’t want to try and promote while watching that. Attempted it last year and it didn’t work in my favor. Still plenty of time to volunteer for the blog tour. One thing that I need to figure out is what to do about the first book here. We’re hoping to make a new cover for that one, but it won’t be ready in time for the new release. So I’ll be using the old one. Part of me considered holding off until both are ready, but my son has a week off in February and March through April is going to be chaos.
That’s a reason why I’m hoping to tackle The Life & Times of Ichabod Brooks on Monday. Part of this depends on if I can finish what I picked up this week. I went back to ‘Sin’ and his stories to find that I stopped in mid-creation. The heroes were done, but not the villains, locations, and event list. I tackled that only to get slowed down by life, so I still have Act 4 to design. I might be able to do it over the weekend since the final acts of a Sin story aren’t as complicated as the others. Just tying up the story with final battles and adventures. If I can’t do this then I’ll use Monday and I’ll start in on the Ichabod Brooks short stories on Tuesday. My hope is to finish it by the end of February and see if anybody wants to beta read them.
Things may get a little busy around here though. My son had his gymnastics show today and his last art class for two or three weeks. We have our Super Bowl party next weekend, which means a lot of cleaning or yelling about cleaning when the cleaning has already been done. Then the following weekend is the Chasing Bedlam release and Valentine’s Day where we’re doing our usual movie/lunch thing. Seeing ‘John Wick Chapter 2’ because nothing is more romantic than kick-ass action scenes. After that comes the kid’s week off and . . . do I really think I’m going to get any work done this year?
I had this problem last year with my son having a lot of days off and events coming in so quickly that I never had a moment to rest. And people expect me to toss a full-time job onto this trash heap I call time management? Ugh. Once I’m done with the Ichabod Brooks stuff, I’ll probably edit the last two Windemere books and that will leave me open for the rest of the year. Well, I have the third Bedlam book and Dawn’s story to put together. Part of me is still hesitant to starting the next series, so I might even do the standalone that I can’t publish until Summer 2018. It feels odd starting a long project when I don’t know what the future will hold. This is a different feeling than before because I’m working with pessimism now.
Only other news is that an idea popped into my head that brings me back to my superhero dilemma. Earth or Windemere? Now, I’m thinking of toying with the Four Horseman mythos. Mostly, something is going on in the world and the Horsemen are activated because they’re really supposed to save everyone. Famine is always eating, but likes sharing food. Pestilence is a healer. War is still a mad berserker, but only goes after evil hearts. Haven’t figured out Death yet. The thing is that this would fit in nicely with the superheroes, but not Windemere. I also already had a War Horseman story, which puts another character at risk. Unless I can find some other group of Doom Harbingers that one can go rogue from. Early stages here, but this could be a tipping point. Maybe I’ll toy with the superheroes later this year and see if I can get a handle on that. At the very least, I could reach a point where people are sick of hearing about them.
Goals of the week:
- Finish outlining ‘Sin’ storyline.
- Start writing The Life & Times of Ichabod Brooks.
- Clean and prep for Super Bowl party.
- Continue the biking.
- Try to go to bed early at least once this week.
- Remember that the final season of Black Sails starts.
- Bug the wife about catching up on Windemere. She’s still back at Charms of the Feykin. We think. She doesn’t remember a lot since she mixes up the original ideas with the current stuff. That and she’s still annoyed that Nyx got a haircut.
- Finish watching Supernatural Season 6.
Legends of Windemere 
All I can say is you should have checked on the haircut idea. First. Of course, I volunteer for launches.
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It had to be done and I was having enough trouble convincing her to let our son get a haircut. She has this odd hair obsession.
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🙂
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Nice to know someone still has a Super Bowl party! We used to but the games were so one-sided and boring (most of the time), we gave up. I have to admit I like the ads better than the sports!
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Most of the people that come don’t watch the game, so it’s more a traditional gathering than a focus on the game. Everyone loves the ads. 😁
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Isn’t it funny how a fictional haircut will get people going sometimes?
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Especially if the character was their first D&D creation.
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Ah, so ownership to a degree.
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I hear you about it time to be getting back to work. I published three books last year and hoped to at least equal that this year. I need to get going. I have two started, but they are spinning their wheels in the mud.
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Having a mud day here too. My plan to finish that outline has been thwarted. Y the house being too loud. Guess I’ll do it tomorrow and hope I can pull off the next project in the time I hope to get it done. It’s a little frustrating since it seems like I can’t go 2 weeks without some event or holiday.
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Hi, Charles. Let me know if I can help with the launch. Blog tour or whatever..
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Thanks. I’ll be sending out a blog post, but I don’t know if you’re still doing WordPress. I can send you the link for a FB promo when it comes out.
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I am still doing WordPress. Just been a bit lax of late. WP or FB or both is good with me. I want to revive WP a bit now.
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It’s an odd place these days. I’ll send you the email when the time comes.
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On your Four Horsemen thing, since they’ve been reversed, maybe Death can restore people to life? It does sound more like a Windermere thing than an Earth thing to me. On Windermere there are gods who could do the kind of casting it would take to flip the Four Horsemen. Earth doesn’t have such magic readily available.
Of course, the magical Four Horsemen would make for more of an urban fantasy Earth, so maybe there could be magic.
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The problem with putting them in Windemere is because they’re Christian mythology. Unlike monsters from various stories, the Horsemen are rather specific in their purpose and mythos. This isn’t really about flipping them though. It’s that their purpose was misinterpreted in the texts, so their job is to stop the apocalypse instead of bringing it to fruition. That does require Christianity to be a thing.
Death will be a tough one. Making that the healer puts Pestilence in a bad spot. Both have opposites that would involve healing, which would also leave War as the only fighting character. Maybe a warrior who refuses to take a life?
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Well, bringing people back to life and curing illness doesn’t have to be the same thing. Someone whose illness is cured could still die by other means. Someone who is restored to life could still have broken bones, blindness, or other very painful conditions.
I guess it depends if you want that dark side in this story.
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I was going for general healer and not just disease. Never been a big fan of characters who can resurrect too. It takes the threat of death out of the picture. Since I haven’t figured out the story, I guess it can go either way.
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Hope you’re able to be productive this week! I suffered a bout with sinus/sore throat/nausea last week too. The one thing I always loved about Super Bowl parties was the food, lol. It was always too loud to hear the game.
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Food and commercials. Fingers are crossed with productivity. Really want to get this short story collection done before March.
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You can do it!
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Oh! The Super Bowl is tomorrow! It seems late in the year for the Super Bowl…that it was the end of January.Hope your party goes well.
Ellespeth
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It’s always the first Sunday in February. Might just feel like this year is moving slow. Already feels like 2016 was an eternity ago.
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