Well, April flew, anyway. It was not a great month here. First, the numbers.

Month:	43,932
Year:	269,758
WIP:	72,154
Streak:	508,988
Days:	200
Average:	2,542

I tried to write three thousand words a day. I cratered when I finished the draft for Troy Harbor. After six months of writing every day, I’ve had a few – ahem – minimal days. Technically, my streak is intact at 200 days because my average is over 2k a day. This is the first month since last October that I failed to reach my goal.

Status Updates:

After all that work, I’m feeling burned out. I’ve been having a bit of a stay-cation and avoiding the word processor to try to recharge. Sadly, that also means my planner with all the careful notes has gone MIA.

Shaman’s Tales Audio I’ve signed a deal with Podium to produce the Shaman’s Tales for Audible. Jeffrey Kafer will read them. I still have no dates on the releases.

Cape Grace Ebook and paper are both out. Audio will be coming from Podium.

The Wizard’s Butler Released on March 22. I sent out a notice to the list. As usual, the paperback is lagging but there’s no contagion problem with ebooks.

Barbarians: Book 1: Hostage – I finished my edits and passed the manuscript over to my co-writer. She’s still working through it.

Troy Harbor Yes, the last in the line of Shaman’s Tales. First draft done. Cover in the works.

Dark Knight Station: Origins First draft done. Will need a cover artist for this one.

What’s Next:

I’m struggling with this. I’ve started the next Ishmael book. I have a rough plot outline for the next Ishmael trilogy. I’m not happy with it. It feels too much like work.

I want to follow up on the Butler book and Tanyth is calling me.

Reminder: I’ve got plans for Ishmael and Pip, Zoya and Natalya. I’ll be getting back to them. Probably in 2020. I’m not sure what – exactly – they’re going to do, but I didn’t spend five years putting them together only to let them sail off into the Deep Dark.

I’ve been reading a lot of stuff. More Glynn Stewart. More of the Paranormal Women’s Fiction. More Krista D. Ball. I go through them really quickly these days—when I can pull myself out of Fallout 4.

Last Words

I’ve had a bit of a respite for the last couple of weeks. A flood of green on my progress calendar has a line of red x’s on it where I’ve just kind of drawn in on myself and let the world go for a few days.

I’m planning on getting back on the horse today and seeing how far I can ride before it bucks me off again.

In the meantime, stay safe, keep reading, and hug any of your loved ones within reach.

Well, March was fun. Not really. It did yield decent results and I’m not sick so let’s work on the positive.

First, the numbers

March:	84,346
Year:	225,826
WIP (Troy Harbor)	44,931
Streak Words:	463,497
Days in a Row:	170
Average words per day:	2,726

STATUS

Audio:

• Home Run is currently available on Audible. It dropped March 3.
• South Coast is in production at Podium. Jeff Kafer will narrate. No word yet on schedule. I’ve contracted with Podium to produce all three Shaman’s Tales.

Paper:

• The Wizard’s Butler should be available in paper this month.

Ebook:

• The Wizard’s Butler dropped a couple of weeks ago. I haven’t even started thinking about audio for this yet.

WIP:

• 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 is in second draft stage. It’s a mess and will take some time to get hammered into shape.
• Troy Harbor – the last of the Shaman’s Tales – is the current “new words” project I’m hoping to wrap that up in the next week. I’d like to wrap that series up before I forget too much about the story line.
• Next project will probably be the first of a new Ishmael series.

What am I reading?

I haven’t started it yet, but it’s next on my hit parade.

Glynn Stewart is one of the few writers I buy without sampling first. If you’ve been following his Starship’s Mage series, the next book dropped last month. I’ve got a copy already and should crack it open tomorrow.

Last Words

March brought a lot of changes for a lot of people. My situation here didn’t change that much. The four of us in the household weren’t known for rampaging around town to begin with so the only real changes involve how many trips I make to the grocery store a week.

Maintaining focus. That’s been the real challenge.

Not to say the month didn’t have its high points, starting with the release of The Wizard’s Butler. A few friends and I also got together to run the spring NovelRama event where a bunch of crazy people tried to write 25,000 words in 4 days.

The event proved to be as much fun and exciting as it’s always been. So many people who never thought they could do it proved themselves wrong. Just goes to show what happens if you can put your butt in the chair and stay focused on the task for a few days.

Thanks for all your support. I’m hoping April will be less stressful and that all of you stay sane and healthy.

Safe Voyage.

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.