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.

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.