Dory from Finding Nemo (Internet Meme)
That should do it. I’m cooking the meal tonight, so I need to rest up. Never been very good at saying what I was thankful for because I always thought I would forget something or someone. Anyway, I hope everyone has a fun day with family, friends, or whatever your tradition is. If you don’t celebrate the holiday then I hope you have a quick, easy day of work.
Just for fun, a slideshow of all the Windemere characters made by Kayla Matt:
That’s what sorting through this series, which has absorbed other series has turned into at this point. I spent the day with all the notes, books, and files that fall under this as well as the ideas I’m slipping into the ‘Project Phoenix’ umbrella. For anyone curious, this hefty series has eaten 7 other tales. To be fair, a few of those 7 started with the original ‘Project Phoenix’, went off to college, and are now home living in the guest room. Except for one that we’re keeping in the basement because it likes the dark. Overall this has turned it into a series of:
18 Books
That’s after chopping away, but it might not be as bad as one thinks. Only a few characters show up in multiple books outside of the grand finale. There is a subtle mega-plot that I can’t spoil here. The length and separate main characters thing is similar to the 16 book series ‘The Harpers’ where heroes had anywhere from 1 to 3 books. The connection here is that all of the characters are from a central event and have a history that comes back to haunt them. Still, this is a pretty big undertaking and some stories are seemingly easier than others.
The biggest pain in the butt is one that I always had a soft spot for and now I looked at the notes: 45 CHARACTERS IN ONE BOOK?!?!? It involves a new hero whose city is run by supervillains, so he spends a year cleaning it up. So there was originally 52 short stories where an adventure happened every week. Not sure what to do here, especially since some characters don’t really fit Windemere. I’m thinking of moving some villains around since this hero kind of has a second book in the series. That should make things somewhat easier.
The trick here is to make sure all of the story ideas are viable, which is the task for the rest of the day. I’m tempted to bring this up with an old friend, but I still don’t think he wants to hear the words ‘Project Phoenix’ again.
The Idea Pile
Book 7 of Legends of Windemere has been edited and headway is being made on Book 6: Curse of the Dark Wind. I’ve come to realize that being a few books ahead in writing/editing can cause confusion. I understand, but I inevitably get a question about when the books that sit between published and edited came out.
The next big project is editing Book 8, which is going to start over the weekend or next week. I didn’t realize my son has off next Wednesday and there’s Parent/Teacher meetings that day. The thing is that this book is short. I thought Curse of the Dark Wind was short at 282 since the others were at least in the 300 page range. Well, Book 8 clocks in at 255. This might rise a bit as I add some description and flesh a few things, but it has me wondering what happened. It doesn’t help that this is the book that lost its last 3 chapters to the hard drive crash. I might have rushed those rewrites or even been more focused. I do know it came in a few pages shorter after that, but I won’t know until I get that far. Still, it’s a little disconcerting to be working with 300-4oo page books and then it suddenly drops to 255.
Anyway, I have a day or two of no projects. Tomorrow will be resting and maybe I’ll tool around with a randomly picked idea while watching TV. Thursday is Thanksgiving and I’m cooking the meal. Friday is up in the air. Might be exhausted, stuffed, and meeting with friends. Avoiding stores is definitely the rule for the weekend. There’s always reading too.
After the vicious crowds of Black Friday
And the mouse shattering of Cyber Monday
You may feel like something is a miss
An area left without a sale
Forgotten among the games and clothes
What about the books?
From free to Kindle Countdowns
Every reader has a choice
Spanning reality and fantasy
Many books are on display
Just waiting to be snagged and read
Or handed to a friend
So all you readers bookmark
And all you authors join
For a day of literary fun
Where words will be on sale
To every age and interest
Read Tuesday has come again
In TWO WEEKS, it will be time for the second year of READ TUESDAY! This was a big success last year as it filled the void left by Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There was no sale that focused on books, which is what this is about. It’s open to all authors to submit and all readers to arrive for the great deals. Maybe that book you’ve been eying all month will be in the catalog. Maybe submitting your book will bring a bunch of readers to kick off your holiday season. There is no risk here because you don’t pay money. You just submit your info, schedule the sale for the right time, and help promote.
