Okay, I’m a little worn down here because my son’s martial arts class needed a third adult for the sword-fighting fun. It was only 5 minutes, but I wasn’t ready. Those kids are fast and relentless. Not to mention short. For a guy who did fencing as the little guy, my instincts are more aiming high. Low was an experience. Lots of unexpected fun, but I wanna lie down now . . . I can’t because laundry, some blogging, and then haircuts need to get done.
Good news is that I finished writing Quest of the Broken-Hearted, which is the summer release. When in the summer? Not sure because it depends on other events that are up in the air. I’ll need to look for a cover artist for this since I tend to use someone other than the main series for my one-shots. I don’t know. I’ll ask Alison if she’d be interested. This is going to be an interesting book in general for a variety of reasons. It gives closure to a character from Legends of Windemere, which means there are series spoilers in there. That’s unavoidable and I might put a warning the book blurb. I haven’t figured out how to handle that one.
Also, this is a very action-oriented story where the hero has to defeat a monster in every chapter, except the first. The trick was to keep the action high while still allowing character growth and development. This led to some unexpected twists and on-the-spot rewrites near the end, which was exhausting. I should have known it would happen when an earlier chapter resulted in an addition to the cast. This might be why the final paragraph of the entire book took an hour to write. I had altered so much that the final piece of foreshadowing/closure needed to be reconsidered.
That was the step forward, so I’ll get to the shove back. My wife still doesn’t have a car and we’re hoping that changes this week. It means I’m still doing all the driving and errands, which includes getting her to work and then getting the kid to school. I haven’t been able to do my biking in weeks because I need to shower to wake myself up enough to handle the traffic. Getting my son to school is typically us leaving at 8:30 for a 15-2o minute trip, but we’ve had to leave at 8 for a 40-50 minute trip now. I’ve come dragging my carcass home to clear social media/email stuff and dive right into writing. Weekends haven’t allowed me to hand responsibilities over to my wife because she can’t go anywhere unless I drive. Even if I drop her off, I can’t get too far into things in case I need to get her. With my son, you never know when you might have to do an immediate exit.
Because of this and my son having his Winter Break the following week, I’m not sure what to do this week. I was considering another editing run of War of Nytefall: Loyalty, but I found that I’m comfortable with the story and my wife is doing a second read through to check continuity for the reader. Jumping into it and changing things around might undo what she’s doing. I considered editing Derailing Bedlam, but that’s a 2019 release if I can even make it that far. People might suggest lounging around because I’ve been working so hard. I considered that, but then remembered that I’m made to suffer if I appear idle. This week might be Ichabod Brooks outlines and preparing more future posts to clear the way for writing War of Nytefall: Lost. Since I won’t have the summer to do big writing projects, I need to bust my butt. I will go over the outline for that book and I’m already seeing a problem with the Prologue. At least, I think it is. The issue is more that it doesn’t have any of the main characters, so it feels like it will be brief. Just sets up the new threat that Clyde will face.
Speaking of blog posts, I’m trying to come up with topics for April and May. March is Hype for War of Nytefall and that will carry over into April. Possibly even May, but I’ve run into an issue. I’ll go more into detail on Tuesday, but it’s become very difficult to think of topics. Part of the issue is that vampires have been done and I’m working with my own species, so some topics won’t work. Hold a cross in front of Clyde and he’ll think you’re offering it to him as a gift. Coffins aren’t a thing and the list goes on. So, I’m trying to focus on flushing out the Dawn Fang’s world. Yet, it could result in spoilers and they’re still in Windemere. The overall world was explored and blogged about during the Legends of Windemere years. This means I’m not sure what to do here and I might be looking for topic ideas on Tuesday after thinking more about this. Feel free to pose any questions that could be turned into posts here if you have anything. Follower feedback is always important.
So, what are the week’s goals?
- Get my wife’s car back.
- Return to biking 15 minutes every morning.
- Pizza reward finally.
- Ignore criticism for indulging in pizza reward.
- Watch Fullmetal Alcheimst: Brotherhood.
- The Longbow of Ichabod Brooks outlines.
- Revamp outline for War of Nytefall: Lost
- April posts if nothing else to do.
- Try to get a little extra sleep.
Legends of Windemere 
Malcolm Horton is the artist I used for both Dead Man’s Hand and Hatchling. He’s a bit spendy, but the exchange rate bring the price in US dollars down a bit (he’s British). You might want to google him and see his styles.
LikeLike
Thanks. I’ll give him a look. Money is an issue though. Last year was not kind financially.
LikeLike
I haven’t written a new word of fiction in weeks. I’m feeling the stress of the corral, and need to free myself. Today was all about blogging ahead. Four down, two to go.
LikeLike
Good luck with the blogging. This year hasn’t been kind to a lot of authors. I’m surprised I’ve gotten anything done.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m fine. My release helped a lot. I really only have to finish one novella this year to have three releases. Problem is I want to jump to a different project, and that’s a killer for me.
LikeLike
Ouch. How far do you have to go on the novella?
LikeLiked by 1 person
25K words. I can likely do that in one year. The other story is like a siren song though.
LikeLike
Those drive me nuts at times. One of the reasons I tend to use weekends for outlines and thinking.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I may have to start it. The outline is ready now.
LikeLike
That muse has you bouncing everywhere.
LikeLiked by 1 person
She’s a taskmaster.
LikeLike
It is tough to be the only driver. Keeps you hopping. Hope next week is a good one. Congrats on the pizza.
LikeLike
Thanks. Haven’t gotten the pizza yet. Need to pick a day where I’m not having a heavy dinner too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good idea. What kind of pizza?
LikeLike
Slice of regular cheese and another of Rigatoni ala Vodka.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yum
LikeLiked by 1 person
Car, pizza rewards, and sleep. Those three will send you into happy land, and the rest should flow. Best to you, Charles.
LikeLike
Thanks. Fingers crossed that it all works out. Enjoy your week.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re welcome Charles. Fingers crossed 🤞
LikeLike
You should never feel guilty for eating pizza! Besides, it was national pizza day on Friday, and you didn’t have it then, so you’re owed pizza!
I once had to stand in with the little ones in a Judo class. Had to time throwing myself at the right moments to make the little ones think they’d actually managed to successfully throw me when they did the moves right. Not that I’m fantastic at Judo, since we moved before I could get too far, and I ended up not continuing it (I wanted to, but it wasn’t an option). But They needed someone to stand in, and I got volunteered for the job. Between doing that and having my regular class afterwards, I was pretty sore by the end of that day.
LikeLike
I felt bad about missing that holiday, but I was too busy working on the book. Figured a delay is fine.
My son keeps trying to get us to do the throws and grapples, but we don’t have the mats here. So, nobody wants to go along with it. I’m finally starting to get my energy back too, so I hope it keeps reviving.
LikeLike
Yeah… You don’t want to be doing it without the mats. You’ll end up sore enough from throwing yourself on the mats.
Hope your energy continues to return, and that the week is a better one for you this time around.
LikeLike
I hope so too. I’m still the one driving around everywhere, which could be a deciding factor.
LikeLike
Maybe you can just free-write and see what ideas spring forth?
LikeLike
I’ve tried, but I have too many ideas in my head. There’s always something asking for attention.
LikeLiked by 1 person