Progress was made this week . . . I think.  Raven’s Hold is done as of Tuesday and I celebrated with pizza on Wednesday.  The rest of the week was kind of a blur with family events, chores, errands, and another near death of the laptop.  Still have a few more days of stuff like a birthday, a chaperone thing, and then another school event.  So we’ll see if my energy holds since I don’t have too much of it lately.  Just been working hard and sleeping lightly.

Glanced over the outline for Legends of Windemere Book 11 (not the real title) and I’m getting back into the mindset for fantasy.  The plan is to dive into the book on Wednesday and finish the first draft by the end of June.  Then it’s 2-3 months of editing Books 9-11 and preparing The Merchant of Nevra Coil for a tentative July/August release.  Anyway, the focus will be on Book 11 and all of the fun that happens in there since it’s going to put the nail in a few subplot coffins.  Though I should probably reread parts of Book 10 to remember what changes happened to one of the characters.  There’s going to be a lot of checking the former books because part of Book 11 is a group of the heroes follow the path that the other group took in Book 10.  Also, a certain half-elven caster might be itching for a fight.  If you figure out who I’m talking about, you can tell how this story is going to start.

Aside from that, I plan on doing some outlining on the days where I have a bunch of other things to do.  Most of this will be the Sin series that really needs an overall name.  I’m also seeing how each of the books follows a similar pattern of Sin getting into a situation, making new friends, an ancient threat awakening, and Sin having to stop it.  There’s a reason for this, but I need to see if there are ways to vary it up a bit more.  New characters in every book probably help, but I only have tentative plot synopses right now.  It’s really Book 7 that I see a mimicry of Book 4, but part of me is thinking of making that happen on purpose.  I have a long time before I reach these though.

Another story idea that is rearing its head again is ‘Project Phoenix’ that I keep retiring, reviving, and rewriting.  For anyone new to the blog, this was a giant superhero series with nearly 16 heroes and 19 books.  I began chopping stuff down and trying to make it easier since I couldn’t keep a main plot straight.  Last time I tackled this thing, I had only the 1st and final book be with all the characters.  Every other book had a solo adventure for a hero or villain with a few cameos to keep things connected.  Then I just tossed out the series idea in general and kept it as solo stories with nothing coherent, which put two characters into limbo.  Now I’m back to looking at the old style.  I might keep some heroes in their own series while combining others whose stories can work together.  There are quite a few ‘on the run’ heroes, so I can just have them adventure as a group.  This is going to be what I tackle after Sin, so I guess I should take some time to list everyone involved.  Doing this by memory will help me see who should stay and who will fade away.  Probably add the lower tier guys into Savior’s story since he’s got the ‘one hero in a city of villains’ thing for his first book.

That’s all the big writing stuff.  I’ll be a rarity on Monday due to the chaperone thing for my son’s school.  Going with him to the aquarium and he hasn’t been told.  It’ll be a lot of fun and I get out of the house.  Probably be exhausted by the time I get home though, so I’m not going to try for writing on that day.

So what’s the weekly plan?

1. School trip and vote for local stuff.
2. Outline a bit for Sin’s series.
3. Start writing Book 11 and aim to get 1-2 chapters done.
4. Pick an excerpt from Ichabod Brooks & the City of Beasts to put on the blog.  Hard to do since it’s only 27 pages.
5. Get a little extra sleep if possible.
6. Curse at the lawn mower.
7. Cooking, but without burning myself this time.
8. Create a 9th goal that is so easy to achieve that it’s basically a freebie.
9. Remember to wear pants when leaving the house.