June Bugs

June 1, 2021 by Nathan 5 Comments

I’m getting better. Really. I made a lot of progress last month. There’s a light on the horizon.

At least I hope that’s the horizon and it’s, you know, a light and not something like a forest fire burning inexorably in my direction …

Status

Salt. Yeah. This is one of the things that’s bugging me. I’m going to have to get out the heavy guns and resort to some kind of bribery to get myself off the time. It sounds harsher than it is. I haven’t dug into it because I’m burning all my writing time on the next project.

The New Ishmael
I don’t even know what to call this any more. The manuscript I’m working on is way too long for one book. I’m well over 300k words now, but the positive news is that I know where the ending is. I just need to get to it. I’m still not sure how many books this will be. At least two. Probably three. It’s going to take a while for me to a) get to the end, then b) cut it into the right pieces, and c) do the patching to make it all make sense. (It’s kind of a mess.)

The Wizard’s Cat
When Roger finds a feral gray tabby lurking in the gardens behind Shackleford House, things get a little tense for the pixies. (It’s coming. We’ll see how this looks by the end of the month.)

AUDIO

Dark Knight Station: Origins is available for pre-order from Audible. Drops June 29.

What Am I Reading?

Where to begin. I’ve read a lot of quirky books this month. It started a new Glynn Steward book (Eyes of Tomorrow), then went to a paranormal romance by Deana Chase (Witching for Clarity), a couple of really dark fantasy stories by Krista D. Ball (Fury, Schemes), a contemporary romance (Her Big City Neighbor by Jackie Lau), a weird western (Sidewinder by David Faux), shifted to xianxia by Tao Wong (Thousand Li: First War) … I’m leaving some out, I know.

It’s been a big month for reading and I’m pretty sure that’s the reason I’ve made so much progress on my writing.

The recommendation this month is Bob’s Saucer Repair by Jerry Boyd. Somebody recommended it to me in response to the last newsletter and I’ll be honest. I really wasn’t sure about this one.

But I fell in love. It’s a goofy, spoofy book with so much heart, I started reading and couldn’t put it down.

See Bob comes home one Friday night and finds Nikki’s stashed her broken down saucer in his garage and … yeah. Hijinx ensue, as they say.

Looking for a fun read, maybe grab a sample and see what you think.

Last Words

I can’t tell you how much better I feel about this new Ishmael … thing. Being able to see an end point–a place where I can actually break this thing off–has made me push my word counts up a little higher each day as the end gets nearer. I made my monthly goal for May and made up for three more days from January before calling it a month.

It feels pretty good and I’m looking forward to finding out what happens next.

In the meantime, safe voyage.

June Bug

June 1, 2020 by Nathan 19 Comments

So, May didn’t actually work for me.

I only got 1/3rd of my goal in word for the month and made almost zero progress on any of the projects. I didn’t walk very often, managed to wrack up my rib cage while changing the filter in our furnace, and then got sick for a few days, just as icing on the cake.

Quick recap.

I have covers coming for Troy Harbor and Dark Knight Station: Origins.

Audio for the Shaman Tales will be coming this fall from Podium. I owe

Karen the draft for Troy Harbor tomorrow. I’m going to be late.

I have yet to find the thread on any follow up project which is the root of the problem.

Ishmael and Company started up but I can’t find the handle on them. They’ve all achieved their goals and now they’re just boring.
I’ve toyed with several choices of Shackleford House stories but can’t seem to make any of them gel the way that Butler did.
I’ve explored other “Origins” stories but – as with everything else – nothing grabs me.

One positive note: I got the draft for Hostage back from the co-writer.

So, I’ve got three drafts waiting for me to do something with while I’m fighting a goal (2k a day every day) that feels more and more arbitrary as I go.

Perhaps I’ll be able to turn things around in June.

February: So Far, So Good

February 1, 2020 by Nathan 7 Comments

January had a few surprises but I managed to maintain focus last month and get a lot accomplished.

Where Am I?

Words for the Month	77,946
Words for the Year	77,946
Current WIP (Dark Knight Station: Origins)	53,966
Streak (110 Days)	309,623

What doesn’t show here is that I finished the preliminary drafts of The Wizard’s Butler and gotten beta reader feedback on it. I’ve seen the cover art sketches and I’m really stoked.

ICYMI: Cape Grace is out

I’ll be pushing out the paperback in the next couple of weeks and Podium has stepped up to produce the Audible versions. No word yet on who will read or when they’ll be available. Stay tuned.

What Else Is Happening?

Home Run should be out though Audible on March 3rd. Pre-orders will be available a week or so before then.

Hostage (Barbarians Book 1) has a full draft. This is the book that my daughter and I are trying to co-write. She gave me her half a few days ago. The ball is in my court at the moment. I’m trying to get The Wizard’s Butler read for the editor so this is on the back burner while she gets her next book – All’s Well In Asgaard – ready for release.

Dark Knight Station: Origins is my current WIP. I needed something to write when I finished the Butler so I picked up and combined some of the ideas that fans submitted to write the origin story of Dark Knight Station and how Verkol Kondur came to run it.

Troy Harbor (Shaman’s Tales: Book 3) will slot in after that. I think. It seems pretty clear from the feedback that people need that closure and I’d rather do it now while the wounds are still bleeding than to heal up from the Cape Grace ordeal, only to rip them open again.

Besides, I’ve got about half of it done already in clipped out stuff from a year trying to write Cape Grace. I’m hoping this one won’t be as painful.

There’s probably more, but the key piece of news here is that the plans that I started working on in October and November have stood me in good stead through December and January. They seem to be flexible enough that they stand up to the day-to-day struggle of staying on top of new words while still editing and producing the works that are in second and later draft stages.

I owe some of that to my Publishing Planner and more of it to the group of writers I’m hanging with – all of whom are cheering each other on while holding us accountable to our goals.

It’s only the first month of 2020, but so far, so good.