I didn’t do anything Sunday and I feel bad about it. I’m sure I’ve spoken about it earlier, but I had no energy to do anything. I didn’t even watch YouTube. I don’t know if I was shagged out after a big gaming day yesterday (two hour road trip! Whoo!) or I was just *bleh*. I hated it because I wanted to write, but when I looked at my expectant laptop, I just felt turned off by the idea.

No, I don’t vacation very well, either.

I ended up moping around the house, just trying to get something done, but I ended up on the couch reading and listening to music. Not the high paced world of authoring fiction to be sure. Monday, I felt a little better and managed to get some writing done in the afternoon and evening after going to the gym.

Sundays are just bleh for me, I guess.

I’m going to chalk up Sunday to a day of fitful rest and move on. Tuesday wasn’t any better, but today I have a good feeling about it because I am going to be in a writer’s group meeting and we’re going to do nothing but write. I should hit my daily word count today with little problem. I’m also going to be around friends who are going to keep me honest about such things as well. It’ll be fun.

When I do write, it’s coming along pretty good. I’m about to get to the point where Chip is starting to piece things together with Lin and Joe. I can’t tart to write those scenes, because it means I’m finally getting to the heart of the story – which makes me wonder if I should cut some of these scenes to make the story tighter. As far as word count goes, I’m halfway through the book. Story-wise, I am maybe…a third? Yeah, I should consider cutting some scenes. I’ll bring that up with the writing group when this story hits their eager paws in a few months. First, I have to finish bringing around Serve Me Now. My wife finished it, and she has brought up some salient points – yes, I did rush the ending and left some dangling threads. No, the story kept her entertained even though she admitted she wasn’t the target audience. Maybe, the ending could be tweaked a little with the wrapping up of those loose threads. I trust her judgment and will fix those and others for the second draft.

I’m still outlining Your Tribe, Our Tribe and there are some changes happening from my initial concept. The antagonist Bobby is actually going to have a job with Edgar, this is how they meet now. Originally, Bobby was going to be the type of person that always seemed to have money but no job. Changing that now so that Bobby can work on him for a lot longer. I’ve outlined the first act and I am working on the second act. Maybe I’ll have the outline done by the end of the month and the novel I am working on now done by the middle of August. We’ll see.

Hope you all stay well and safe.

Double extra internet points if you get the reference.

I’m still juggling two projects, but that’s honestly nothing new for me. What’s new for me right now is that I am not ditching the first project to completely throwing myself into the second one and making that empty promise that I’ll get back to it someday. Someday is the graveyard of promises.

Maybe I’m maturing as a writer? Stop laughing.

I’m only writing the outline for this next novel, Your Tribe, Our Tribe, with the notion that is something happens, I can hand off all the notes to someone else and they can pick up and follow through. I also tend to forget scenes and I have to scramble to add them in when I do the re-writing. With the outline, I hope to have all the scene there and noted. No more forgotten scene!

I am still writing The Show Must Go On, and I am getting to the big reveal for the main character that he’s being cheating on. I’ve been waiting to write that scene for a while, but I couldn’t figure out how to make it subtle enough so that the reader could think that Chip is making a mountain out of a molehill. I think I have the idea – just a simple hip bump from Lin onto Joe. It looks innocuous enough, but it definitely clues Chip into what’s going on.

I’m not really sure what to do after the werewolf book is done. The haunted house story can’t really do forward until I do a little more research. I also want to dig into the vampire story I have – this one bringing gore and horror back to vampires – and it’s a little more formulated in my head. I might just do that one after the werewolf story. I am still trying to get four novels out of this year of horror. Next year is going to be fantasy and finishing up a couple of novels abandoned to the land of Someday.

This month also has a lot of good movies opening up. The Flash, Spider-Man across the Spiderverse, Asteroid City (never seen a Wes Anderson film before, so this looks like a good introduction), No Hard Feelings (can Jennifer Lawrence do comedy? We’ll see), and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. All of them look like great films, and it looks like my pace will slow down a little this month, but it will be worth it if these are good films.

Well, that’s all for now, speaking of pacing. I should try to get back to work and get some more of this chapter down before Chip realizes he’s being done wrong.

Ta-ta and stay safe.

Edging…is not a term you’d think you’d run into in a blog about writing, but that’s what I am kinda doing. Well – I’m working The Show Must Go On, but to satisfy that itch in my head to write Your Tribe, Our Tribe, I am doing all the prep work. Naming all the characters, writing down the beats and listing the ice cream scenes to make sure I don’t skip anything. For this one, so far there are only these: Edgar’s awakening in the woods, Edgar and Moe, round one; Edgar and Moe, round two; the chase through the park, the final fight. Not enough to flesh out a 70-80K word novel, but I can get there. As long as I don’t sit down and start writing the text, I’ll be fine. Really. Stephen King does this all the time (I’m sure).

The current project is coming along, a bit reluctantly. I’m on the cusp of writing one of the newer ice cream scenes with the main characters being invited to be on a panel at a convention for paranormal enthusiasts. That’s where the big reveal for Lin’s infidelity with Chip (if people haven’t figured it out by now) will happen, but first I have to get through the haunted schoolyard. This part feels like it’s dragging a little, and it might get cut down or changed a little during edits. It is coming together, but it feels like everyone on the set would much rather be somewhere else. Or maybe I’m projecting. Who knows?

This weekend I am going to start the re-writes for Serve Me Now and I hope to keep it up through out the year. I am anticipating finishing the whole thing by next year, if not a little later. I don’t know if it needs one or two rounds – all depends on whether or not I should try submitting this for publication or not. Still haven’t made up my mind about that, yet. I can certainly use the feather in my cap, but I also want to have a little more control over it. I don’t really know. This would be a big step for me. I guess it all depends on how impatient I am about getting this out into the world. I’ll have to do some research, obviously, and find some small publishers looking for a horror novel. That doesn’t bode well, sadly.

Well, that’s all for now. Please check out the books to the right, make a purchase or give me some coffee to support the blog. Ta-ta and stay safe.