I continue to make small triumphs! Someone is reading my first novel The Quietest Heart, at least sixty-eight pages worth of it. It’s not my best work to be honest, but I am not going to remove it because I think it’s important to show the evolution of the writer – much like Howard Tayler leaves his early drafts of Schlock Mercenary up when his artwork has improved greatly over the years. I also recommend the webcomic. The artwork is good towards the end and the story is funny and engaging.

Still working on Valentina’s Repast, but my mind is starting to wander to other things. This is a problem with me. I’ll start working on something, but eventually, some shiny new bauble will spring up in my mind, so I’ll get disinterested in what I was working on to chase this new butterfly. Lather, rinse, repeat. I don’t know how I was able to get Valentina’s Feast finished under these conditions. Also, given that I need to have Repast done and out by Hallowe’en this year…I can’t really afford many diversions. How do professional writers stay on task? They must be made of sterner stuff than I am, to be honest. I’ll have to figure out some way to appease this distracting beast. I know I’ve made a habit of writing down ideas for future use, but my mind seems to take that as a hint to not focus on the task at hand. Can coffee make you focus? Should I be drinking more coffee? The answer is yes. The answer is always yes.

Another distraction is July, which seems both so far away and frightfully up close. I’m going to take a vacation on the beach and currently I’m saving up for a nice hotel room. This has made apparently a bit of a panic at Goulet Pens, because they are blowing up my inbox. I think they think I’m dead. They’re sending me emails with enticing pens, but I must stay the course. The running theme of their missives is: “Hey, buddy – how are you doing? We haven’t heard from you in a while. Everything okay? Well, we got this beautiful Visconti Homo Sapiens Magma pen…made from real magma from Mt. Etna. It was $995, but for you, we’ll knock it down to $719. Buddy, that’s a steal! We might as well put them in cereal boxes for that price.” Soon…soon my pretty, you and I will be joined. Let me pay for this hotel room and raise some cash for gas and food. I promise, my love and light – we’ll be together. That’s going to be a birthday present for me (unless someone who reads this blog wants to buy it for me? Yes, I am a shameless pen whore).

I think that’s going to be all for now. I’m going to try to finish up this scene with Valentina back in the kitchen of one of her restaurants and lull myself to sleep with visions of my writing my name with a pen that’s more than a mortgage payment (don’t judge me). I hope everyone has a good day.