I always equate August with the heat of the summer. Around these parts July and September can be just as brutal. The origin of the phrase goes back to the Greeks and Romans. It references the period of the year when Sirius and the Sun rise and fall together. Their reasoning? The additional heat of the brightest star added to the heat of the sun.

I’ve heard less rational explanations of natural phenomenon lately, so who am I to judge.

Anyway, the news for August.

By the time you read this, I’ll have a manuscript ready for Finwell Bay (the book formerly known as Troy Harbor), Book 3 in the Shaman’s Tales. I still have a few pages to go but I’m inordinately pleased with the progress I’ve made this week. Time is getting really tight on this one and I still haven’t gotten the cover from Jesse.

Next up, Hostage, Book 1 of Barbarians. I’ve got a completed second draft back from my co-author (my daughter) and it’s just been waiting for me to add my notes to the draft and see if there’s anything else I want to change. She’ll be doing the cover for it. (Did I mention she’s also an artist?) I asked her to draw a map for us, too. It’s amazing. This one should go right into the editor after I get Finwell Bay back.

After that, I’ll have Dark Knight Station: Origins to deal with. I had an artist who was working up some sketches for a cover but I need to check in with him. I haven’t heard anything for a while. As I remember, that book shouldn’t take too much massaging to get into shape. I just need to watch the continuity. One of the advantages of hammering a book out in a matter of a few weeks is that I can keep the timeline more or less straight from the beginning.

What am I reading?

The last book I finished was the second book in Krista D. Ball’s Ladies Occult Society series–A Ghostly Request. If you liked the first book, you’ll like the second.

I’ve been reading a lot of stuff that I can’t recommend. Mostly samples of titles that failed to get me to the “Buy me” link at the end of the sample. Many failed in the first few pages. I’ve been disappointed, but I’m also aware that I’ve been hyper-critical lately. I may not be giving the books a fair shake in my current state of distraction.

That said, most of the Paranormal Women’s Fiction authors from earlier in the year have come out with new books in their various series. I’ve got several waiting for me in my TBR pile.

Looking Ahead

I need to start getting more words down. I think the next book will be either The Wizard’s Cat or the next Ishmael book. I’ve got a rough outline for each of them and a writing event coming up in mid-August where the goal is to write 25k words in 4 days. I’ll need a fresh story for that if I’m going to have any prayer of 6250 words a day over the course of a long weekend.

After too many weeks of letting things stew, I think I may be ready to push through the dog days and into fall and winter with a fresh spirit.

Wish me luck.

We’ve reached the end of the first half of 2020.

Progress report:

I’ve managed to get the completes pieces for Troy Harbor into Scrivener so I can claim an completed draft. It’s that stage of the jigsaw puzzle where you’ve got all the pieces face up on the table and you’re looking for the edge pieces. Along the way, I’ve discovered characters who shouldn’t be there, identified at least two characters who should be there but aren’t, and at least one scene that I used in Cape Grace that needs to be completely redone for the new context. I also discovered that the new story is a lot stronger than I thought.

Nothing else has changed. I’m still waiting on cover sketches. Podium is on track for audio in the fall. I still haven’t published the paperback for Butler.

On the positive side, I walked more in June than May, I’m still not sick, and I’m cautiously optimistic that I’ll have this title out by the end of the month.

It was a good half, all indications to the contrary notwithstanding. I published two books, wrote almost 300,000 words, and still have three novels in the pipeline for publication. Second quarter wasn’t that great but it might have been much worse.

So, fingers crossed that I maintain the status quo and move the process forward without falling into the machinery.