Legends of Windemere

I’m still trying to get back on schedule here since things happened.  My son went back to school, so early wake ups combined with breakfast issues and fine-tuning the bus pick up schedule.  The wife started a new temp job on the same day, so I’m wrangling both on some days.  I start the day saying ‘No more, Wild Kratts’ and end it saying ‘No Daily Show for you’.  Between those events, I’m trying to write Book 14 of Legends of Windemere and get stuff done around the house.

I’ve noticed a trend with my energy levels.  Monday through Wednesday are strong ones where I get 3 chapter sections done along with the daily stuff.  Thursday gets shaky and filled with yawns, but it’s not a biking day, so I make it.  Friday is a limp to the finish and a promise that I’ll make up time on the weekend.  Don’t even get me started on the weekend though.  Can never predict that along with the multiple holidays that are between now and December 31st.  Finishing the last two Windemere books might not happen, especially with everything else going on.

Here is where I should talk about Charms of the Feykin, which I promised in September.  My hope is that it will be out by the end of the week.  I admit to being worried right now.  Tribe of the Snow Tiger had a good debut, but every book does a little worse than the last one because it’s a series.  Not to mention Amazon rankings seem to plummet much quicker than they used to.  I have no idea why.  If it depends more on reviews than sales then I’m in trouble because I find it very hard to get reviews.  This is where I falter because I don’t know if asking for reviews is allowed.  The whole thing feels like such a mire of rules and traps that I’m rather scared to make a public request.  I just focus on getting the next one ready and writing the one that is next on my list.

Speaking of writing and going back to Book 14, I did have trouble about mid-week with this one.  A challenge here is that it follows an adventure going alongside the final book, but equally important to what the champions are doing.  This means I don’t have my usual relationships and connections to depend on.  I still have the humor and action, but there’s a meanness to some of it due to one of the characters involved.  This has led to me realizing that several of the ‘character chat’ scenes simply don’t work because it would be brief or not happen at all.  Guess a plus side here is that it means I’m condensing the story and chopping out the fat before it’s in there.  For example, I’m up to what my outline says is chapter 6 of 21.  Yet, I’ve already combined the original 2 and 3 as well as the original 5 and 6.  That means I’m looking at a nineteen chapter book instead of a twenty-one, but that could get even lower.  Honestly, this gives me hope for the final book, which the old outline has at a whopping 26 chapters.

By the way, does anybody remember what I named the final book?  I keep forgetting and the post-its I keep writing it down on seem to always disappear.  Not the injury/fate list or the cool quote for future story lists that I have.  Those always turn up.  The title for Book 15 seems to always vanish.  I keep thinking it’s ‘The Forgotten Baron’ since it involves the final battle with Kernaghan who was erased from history.

Final thing before the goal list.  I noticed earlier that I was unsubscribed from a few blogs and I tried to fix all of that.  Not sure when it happened or why.  Pretty sure most of us have had it happen at some point.  I’m having enough trouble keeping up with everything and adding blog wandering on top of it.  Usually I only get to do it in the morning because I’m sprinting once the kid wakes up and zombie-like by the evening.  Seriously, I’m surprised I haven’t drooled on my keyboard yet.

What am I setting out to do this week?

1. If possible, publish Charms of the Feykin and set up the usual promotions.  Noticed a few more of the free ones have been silent for months.  Really running out of promo spots.
2. Keep writing Book 14.  Hopefully get 3-5 chapters done.  Finishing by early October would be great.
3. Biking, cooking, food shopping, and the usual home stuff.
4. Help son with homework.  Practice whimper of frustration.
5. Finish the ‘Monster Maker’ posts for October Mondays.  Got enough to do that and the other days will have evening pieces of Raven’s Game.
6. Come up with a Thursday post.  If the new book is out by then, I’ll announce it.  If not then maybe I’ll see if I can find any Chasing Bedlam beta readers.
7. Figure out if I can block these ads that pop up at the top of my Gmail folders.  What demon from marketing started this up?