Legends of Windemere

I already talked about coming back from the trip and this week has been about getting back into the author groove.  The plan was to use Tuesday for a little R&R outlining for a future story.  After that would be editing.  Except ‘after that’ never happened and I designed every character and the plot outline.  This means I’m set for when I’m sent out of the house to write for a few days.  It also means I haven’t touched Windemere in a while and want to get back.  That’s the plan for the week.

There’s something about creating a new idea and fresh characters that gives me a charge.  I think I spent so many years doing only that, so it’s become second nature.  Choosing a name is always the hardest part.  From there, I just weave through the physical traits, personality, role in the story, quirks, and a bit of history.  Some of my best subplots have come from these character bios.  The only complication is that it means I have to read through a lot of notes when I sit down for the final outline.  It’s very irksome when I have a great subplot in a character bio and forget to add it to the outline.  You might think this is weird, but remember that my mind is playing with a lot at once.  Main plot, subplots, character development, future installments, and world building are considered in the same sitting.  The juggling can be exhaustive.

Speaking of frustration and fatigue, I’ve given up trying to figure out why Prodigy of Rainbow Tower and Allure of the Gypsies seem to have the worst sales luck.  I promoted the former for most of a day and nothing happened.  Tried that a few times with the other and nothing.  Yet, Beginning of a Hero and volumes 4-7 do fairly well.  I keep looking at these two to figure out what’s different about them.  Family of the Tri-Rune is longer, so it isn’t that.  Review percentages aren’t very different than the first book and pricing is same as the later ones.  The only thing that has been pointed out as an obvious difference is utterly ridiculous.  I’m a little worried to say it, but it was brought up in a conversation.  These are the ‘female’ covers.  Amazing covers, but they depict Nyx and Sari respectively while the others have Luke, Timoran, and landscapes.  Again, this is a touchy thought to have and I’d like to think this isn’t a factor since both covers are gorgeous.  Still the overall situation has me scratching my head.

In non-book news, I went to get my hair cut . . . repeatedly.  I walked across town two times and they were closed.  I think they were on vacation.  Oops.  I’ll try again this week and aim for a day that isn’t very humid.  That’s really all there is for personal stuff since my son is back in school for half the day.  After that is playing around and I’ve been saving errands for when he gets home because he likes helping.  Really starting to wonder how I’m going to function when I’m sent away for 5-6 days (oops. wrote weeks before.  Sorry!).  Everyone tells me it’ll be great, but I’ve been doing this juggling act for years.  The responsibility isn’t something I minded and it kept me aware of both time and progress.  I got frustrated when I felt like nobody was taking anything off my shoulders or things got worse when others stepped in to help.  Yet being away from it all puts me on a different kind of edge.  This won’t happen until mid-August, so we’ll see what happens.

I plan on putting up a fun, interactive post tomorrow.  August will be ‘character interview’ month to make things easier for me.  I’ll be doing editing, hopefully promoting the new book, writing another, and my son is off from school for 3 weeks during that time.  So these posts will be simple and fun to set up.  It won’t be a live thing like I’ve done before, but I’ll explain more tomorrow.

What’s the plan for the week?

1. Edit Merchant of Nevra Coil and contact Jason about cover progress.
2. Edit The Mercenary Prince.
3. Finish the outline for the post-apocalyptic action/comedy/whatever.
4. Biking.  Really need to get back to that.
5. Haircut attempt.
6. Play with the boy.