I’m getting the mojo back. It’s a slow process but it is a process and it’s working.

Status

The Wizards Cat
The story grows a little bit almost every day. I’m still looking for the spark that turns my little candle into a bonfire but the fact that I’ve kept it growing most of the month keeps me coming back to it.

Everything Else
All the long form fiction stuff – more science fiction, more fantasy, different formats (notably the audiobooks for Tanyth), are all on hiatus. Virtually frozen in storage against the time when I can think about them again. Not my wish, but a simple recognition that I’ve gotten very limited in my ability to process multiple projects with any kind of reliability.

What Am I Reading?

I ripped through Eric Ugland’s “The Good Guys” series. Fifteen volumes in a couple of weeks. LitRPG and highly recommended but that niche is an acquired taste that many of you don’t share.

More pertinent, I also read the first three volumes of J J Green’s Space Colony One series. I picked them up as a virtual boxed set and plowed through them in about 4 days. The story concerns what happens when a generational starship finally makes landfall on a habitable planet after six generations in space, the successes and failures. Balancing on a genetic knife edge as they struggle to maintain a viable gene pool.

It starts very slow. Some of the characters get little more than a sketch. A couple are as cardboard as Leon Rosset. It’s slow enough I was tempted to DNF, but I’m glad I went through to the end of volume 3, and not just because I’m cheap and already owned it.

I felt like Green’s storytelling picked up as the series continued. The plot’s careful weaving in the first book became more engaging the deeper I got into the story. Ethan and Cariad, the two main characters, took on more depth. I became more invested in the story as I went along and will be going back to pick up volumes 4-6 when I get a chance.

But don’t take my word for it. I’d suggest you grab a sample but the box set is free as of this writing. Maybe check it out for yourself.

About the Newsletter
I’m still publishing it on the 15th of the month. You don’t need to subscribe to get a mid-month update from me. You can find them archived on my newsletter’s public page at Kit.

Looking Forward

I know I say this every month but the story really is coming along. I’m closing in on the halfway mark, finally. I’m not sure how the story ends, but I have a feel for where it’s going and how it might get there. I just need the energy to get it done.

Perhaps more important, I’m feeling better than I have in, well, years. I’m still not 100%. Maybe this is my new 100%, I don’t know. I’m more optimistic about this story than I have been in a while. All I can do is keep plugging away.

Eventually, it’ll get there and we can all move on to something else.

Until next month, safe voyage.

-N

Yeah. March did not go as planned. The 40 Mile March turned into … something else.

But it’s spring and hope springs eternal.

Status

The Wizard’s Cat (Book 2 of the Wizard’s Butler)
I didn’t realize that so many people didn’t make the connection between the Cat and the Butler. The book itself needs the last few quarters of the story filled out. A weasely way to say I’ve got a long way to go but I know where I think it might end up. Execution, as always, is the problem.

Everything Else
Nothing else has happened. If it’s not Cat, it’s not happening. I have not abandoned Ishmael or Tanyth or anything. I’ve got some thoughts about where all those characters might go. I’m making a concentrated effort to put my limited brain cells on the Cat.

What Am I Reading?

I finished off the existing volumes of Stephan Morse’s Continue Online series and Nobody103’s Mother of Learning (a 4 volume series at the moment). Lately, I’ve been zipping through Darynda Jones’s Betwixt and Between series. I’m up to book 4 in just a few days. They’re just so much fun, my reading has been on the upswing after the February doldrums.

The basic set up for this midlife magic tale involves a set of chosen ones – women, naturally – whose powers get passed down through the generations from legendary roots. In the first three books, our plucky heroine – aptly named Defiance Dayne – in the aftermath of a marriage gone horribly wrong, inherits a historic Salem manse with a dark past from a woman she’s never heard of.

Secrets abound. Snarky dialog sparks up the pages and kept me smiling as I read. In book 4 the sidekick becomes the main character but the secrets, and the snark, continue. I’m about halfway through and already looking for the next book.

Content warning: There are some steamy bits. Lots of lusty thoughts but a few paragraphs that might not be exactly safe for work.

But don’t take my word for it. Maybe grab a sample of book 1 and see for yourself.

Seriously, Continue Online and Mother of Learning took up all my reading time last month. Some mitigating circumstances? I read only half as much (according to the Kindle app on my phone) for the first three weeks of the month. I blame Enshrouded.

About the Newsletter
I’m still publishing it on the 15th of the month. They’re not all getting delivered but you don’t
need to subscribe to get a mid-month update from me. You can find them archived on my newsletter’s public page.

Looking Forward

A few people have suggested that I put the Cat aside and write something less fraught. I have to admit I’ve considered it more than once but I just can’t gin up any excitement knowing that this story needs to get finished. While some of that impetus comes from knowing so many of you are waiting for it (and have been, literally, for years at this point), most of it comes from me. I need to see this story through for my own sake.

I’m having to relearn so much after The Troubles in 2022. How to eat. How to sleep. How to deal with, well, everything since I didn’t actually die but thought for a good portion of the year I might.

As I told somebody when I was working on editing the Marva Collins series, which I roughed out before I got sick, the story hadn’t changed, but I had.

I’m still – even after all this time – still working through those changes. I’m honestly convinced it will be worth the effort.

And the wait.

Until next month, safe voyage.

N

Not just a metaphor. It’s a goal.

Status

The Wizard’s Cat
Not my best showing. My practice froze with the sub-zero temperatures and snow in the latter half of the month. The last few days have thawed things a bit. We’ll see how well that works as the month unfolds.

Everything Else
I’m not working on anything else except me and the Cat. Ishmael, Tanyth, and everything else has taken a back seat while I spend what little focus and energy I have on getting this book through to the finish line.

What Am I Reading?

This month? Not very much. My recommendation engine is idling at the moment.

I spent the last two weeks working through the first three Mother of Learning titles and enjoyed them very much. Think Groundhog Day meets litRPG where the main character, Zorian, gets to repeat the same month over and over. He and his fellow looper, Zach (yes, there are a lot of Z-names), remember what happened in the previous month but nobody else seems to. Unless it’s the mysterious Red Cape.

Sometimes brutal. Often funny. Really intriguing story of what-if and how does it change you when the only thing you can hold on to is your memory.

I liked it so far, but maybe grab a sample and see for yourself.

Honorable mention for last month: Krista Walsh’s Evensong. An interesting take on a portal fantasy/writer trapped in his own works story. Kind of a nightmare, really. I wasn’t sold on the premise but Walsh made it work. I’ll probably go back for the next in the series.

See all the books I read in February here.

About the Newsletter
I’m still publishing it on the 15th of the month. They’re not all getting delivered but you don’t
need to subscribe to get a mid-month update from me. You can find them archived on my newsletter’s public page.

Looking Forward

That 40 mile March listed above references my goal of walking 40 miles this month. The “Talking On My Morning Walk” portion of my day took a beating this month with some dangerously cold, icy, and snowy weather. I didn’t get anything like a reasonable amount of walking in but the season seems to have turned nicely now. We’ll still get some crappy weather but spring is in the air and I need to get my boots on the sidewalk again. Can I walk 20 out of 31 days? We’ll see.

The bigger picture shows me that when I walk more, I write more. My writing dried up along with the walking last month so maybe walking will help curb my ADHD a bit and get it re-hyperfocused on what really matters.

All I can do is keep trying every day.

Until next month, safe voyage.

-N