February came through for me. I kept to my basic plan of 2,000 new words every day and using the rest of the day to work on second drafts, production, etc. I didn’t get as much walking in as I needed to, but there’s next month. Early on, I was still recovering from the January surgery. I got more walks in–and more talks in–near the end of the month.

Statistics:

February:	63,534
For the Year:	141,480
Current WIP:	117,500
Streak Words:	375,614
Days in a Row:	139
Average words per day:	2,702

Status:

Audio:

• Home Run is currently available for pre-order on Audible. It drops March 3.
• South Coast is in production at Podium. No word yet on narrator or schedule. I’ve contracted with Podium to produce all three Shaman’s Tales.

Paper:

• Cape Grace is currently available in a non-refeshable cellulose display edition.

Ebook:

• No new books dropped in February.

WIP:

• The Wizard’s Butler is with the editor and I’m still waiting for the cover art.
• Hostage (Book 1 of the Barbarians series) is in second draft. This book will be a while in production because I’m co-writing it and we both need to agree on the draft before we give it to the editor.
• Dark Knight Station: Origins remains the current first draft, new words project. I should find an end here in the next couple of days. When I do, it’ll slide into the “afternoon” queue.
• Next project might be Troy Harbor – the last of the Shaman’s Tales. I’d like to wrap that series up before I forget too much about the story line.

What Am I Reading?

I neglected to recommend a book in February so let me recommend Carol Van Natta’s Central Galactic Concordance series. I inhaled the first two and forced myself to put down the series and address some of the samples waiting in my TBR pile. Great world building. Interesting characters, but (fair warning) there’s kissing. Which – for the record – I support.

Book 1: Overload Flux

Last Words

Two months into the “2k for 2020” campaign, I’m keeping up with the words. Shifting gears to work on a different book in the afternoon is more hampered by my ability to actually get the 2k in before lunch than my ability to shift my brain to a different story line.

Mid-month I felt the rise of incipient burn-out. I pushed too hard and neglected some of the self-care that I need. I’ve made some adjustments on calendar and expectation. The burn-out seems to be averted for the moment.

I feel good. I’m happy with the work. I’m looking forward to publishing at least one of these WIPs before April and I’m ready to roar into March.

Another successful NaNoWriMo behind me. My goal was 100k or a completed draft by the 20th. I wrote 5k words a day until the 18th when I finished the draft for my half of the Barbarian book that I’m co-writing with my elder child. I also picked up my new habit of writing 2k new words a day and I’m 30k words into my next book – The Wizard’s Butler (h/t to Chris Weible for the title and idea).

Onward to status reports:

Writing:

Cape Grace:
At the editor. Karen was booked solid last month and is still fighting free. I still haven’t seen the new covers yet. Time to rattle his cage again.

Hostage: Barbarian at the Gate – Book 1
Waiting on the second half from my co-writer

The Wizard’s Butler
30k into it and enjoying it more every day.

Next Project:
I have a list of about 60 ideas. My next task is going to be organizing them to see if any of them have legs. Some top contenders at the moment:

1. I need to get back to Ishmael. I don’t know what that story looks like yet.
2. One of the recurring ideas from my newsletter readers was a series of Toe-Hold/CPJCT stories about the stations and life there.
3. Back stories on all the characters in that universe – notably Lois McKendrick, and the Carstairs clan.
4. Tanyth Fairport adventure. I don’t know what that might be yet.
   

Audio:

Suicide Run
Podium sent me the official release date – 24 Dec 2019. It should be available for pre-order soon if it’s not already.

Home Run
Still on the calendar for Feb 2020.

Tanyth Fairport
I contacted the production company and gave them a nudge. Fingers crossed.

What I’m Reading

Newsletter readers get to see my reading list. Seems only fair blog readers should, too. 

Some of you know I read a lot of litRPG. Right now I’m into Desert Runner by Dawn Chapman. Dawn’s one of the comparatively few women writing in this space and I really like her touch with it. I’m about a third of the way through book one and I’m hooked even though it’s a novella length.

You can find the three book set here: https://www.amazon.com/Desert-Sequence-Puatera-Online-1-3-ebook/dp/B079QTHJMY

Looking ahead

My goal is to write 2k new words every day to keep books in the pipeline. I’ve tried it before but 4thewords has been really helpful over the last 48 days (over 150k words) It’s keeping me on track with the gamification. I can satisfy my ADHD by trying new quests and fighting new monsters. I’m not saying I’ll succeed at this goal of over 700k words in 2020 but one day at a time, one month at a time, I’m going to give it a shot.

December’s goals:

1. 62k words. That should see me through The Wizard’s Butler
2. Publish Cape Grace – although much of this is out of my hands at the moment.
3. Line up the next project

Bottom line: I’m ending December with 122k words and a new sense of purpose.

That’s it for now.

Safe voyage.

Like every month isn’t a novel writing month here, but NaNoWriMo gets the whole family involved. If they’re not writing, at least they understand why I’m grumpier than normal at being interrupted.

Cape Grace:
Finally. I’ve got the beta reader feedback loaded up. It’s pushed the story out a bit but I’m good with what I’ve got.A lot of the feedback had to do with the disconnects between Cape Grace and Half Share. There were a lot of them but I’ve done some word-fu on Cape Grace to bring it more into alignment. I can’t tell if it’s right yet. I’m too close to it. I answered one of the outstanding questions as well. The situation isn’t resolved exactly, but at least there’s an answer.

I’ve been toying with the idea of a third book to finish up the Shaman’s Tales on St Cloud. If I go down that rabbit hole, it’ll be called Troy Harbor. Once you’ve read Cape Grace, that title will make more sense. I hope.

Milk Run:
Audio was out October 1.

Suicide Run:
Scheduled for December 24.

Home Run:
February 2020, but I don’t have a firm date yet. Watch this space.

Tanyth Fairport Adventures:
Still in production.

What’s next?

The NaNoWriMo project is book one of the Barbarians. I’m co-writing it with my elder child and we’ve been nerding out over it for – literally – months. We have no idea if it’s going to work. We’re still struggling with how it’s going to work. For the moment, we’re operating on instinct and blind luck, because the planning is “We’ll each do a part. Magic happens. Publish the book.”

I’m pretty sure that’s not going to work out as smoothly as we hope, but I’m equally sure it won’t be as terrible as we fear. I write a lot faster than she does, but we’re both hooked on 4thewords these days. I’m figuring we’ll have most of the book down on the page by the end of November. The tricky bits will happen after that. I’ll let you know how it worked out in December.

Looking Ahead

With the completion of Cape Grace, I’m done with the books I’ve promised to write. My project board is blank after this experiment in co-writing. In theory it’s a trilogy. It might wind up a bust and never get off the drawing board.

This year has been hell. It’s a year I don’t want to repeat. With only one novel – and I’ll be lucky to get it actually published in December – it’s one of the lowest levels of production I’ve done since I got my rights back in 2012. I don’t want 2020 to be a rerun. While it seems a little early to be thinking about next year, if I don’t plan for it now, I’ll be launching into the void in January.

If you’ve listened to “Talking On My Morning Walk,” you’re up to speed on some of this but for those who’ve missed an episode or two, a recap:

1. 4thewords. It’s a gamification of writing. I’m writing more and having a blast doing it. I think it’ll be a game changer into 2020 as I write hard to keep the streak (and daily averages) up. (https://4thewords.com – my referral code is MIXZI00906 if you want to friend me as Rhasha.)

2. A new hardcopy planner. My friend and colleague Corinne O’Flynn has designed an published a writer’s planner. I picked up my copy and I’m totally sold on it. I just need a plan for the year.

3. My number one goal is four novels. I’m getting old and my clock is ticking. I want to get more stories out before I write “the end” for my personal work-in-progress. I need to scope out what those stories will be. At least one of them will be back in the Deep Dark.

4. My number two goal is 2,000 words a day. While this feels backwards – focusing on how many words and not on the stories – I think it’ll pay off in the long run. I just need to lay out a few projects so that when I get done writing one, I can move into the next one without floundering around. While 2,000 words a day isn’t a big number compared to what I’m capably of, I’m trying to get some consistency so I don’t have months pass between projects. I don’t know if it’ll work or not, but if it does – that’s about 7 novels worth of writing. While not all of the writing will be novels (I’m counting this post, for example), it should be more than enough for me to get four novels worth of stories out next year.

So that’s it for this month. I’m writing this ahead so it can drop on schedule. By the time you read this, I’ll be writing my fingers off and slaying monsters as I go.

Safe voyage.