There isn’t much positive news beyond I’ve sold some copies of The Catastrophic Christmas Party and The Dreaded Day Job. I feel like such a hot-house orchid when it comes to writing sometimes. I’ll have something for next week.

I am beyond thrilled right now. I just sold two books today. Sure – it’s not the millions I want, but this month is starting out better than last month. I hope to keep this momentum going – perhaps I can get some more sales for February of some of my other works.

I am almost done with Voices Abroad. I know I’ve said that a lot, but this time I really mean it. I am on the last chapter and there are no other chapters I need to go back and re-do. When I am done, I am done with this book and will let it sit for editing purposes. I might get back to it in a couple of months. Maybe I’ll let Nancy read it to see what she thinks. I might also go on ahead and print up The Show Must Go On first and have her read it. I’m hoping to get it done and ready for primetime by Hallowe’en.

This year is going to be the year of epic fantasy, but next year, I think I am going to focus solely on Evan’s books. Try to pump out a book a month – which is completely doable (where have I heard that before?) because they’re not supposed to be over 50,000 words. I’m basically going to be doing Nanowrimo once a month, every month. I can get them read and edited quickly – might even be able to release the same month I write. So far, Evan’s books are the big sellers, so it makes sense for me to try to pump those out. Epic fantasy books are being written with the goal of larger publication in mind, but the Evan books might end up being my bread and butter. I can live with that.

I am still pumped up to write Medicine Show – I’ve been getting some inspiration from The Last Podcast on the Left. Listening to their episodes about the Black Death has been giving me ideas concerning scenes that I would want to see in the book. I should consider getting a couple more books for research’s sake. I’ll put off the Gothic Trailer Park story for a little while – I have a book to read on the poetics of Gothic literature and that’s going to take a while.

This year is looking up for me! I hope I can get more stuff out there, and I keep on selling the things I have. I hope this year goes as well for you, too, Dear Reader.

Well…it looked really good flying overhead…

I missed the deadline, but on the upside I’m under 10,000 (8,167 words to be exact – a chapter and a half) words remaining. Now, if it’s going to be finished under ten thousand words is another question. One I can’t really answer right now. I know what the ending is going to be, but I don’t know how to get there. Y’know – typical author things.

I am going to stick with the schedule I have in my head and start outlining The Marvelous and Malefic Doomsday Medicine Show during my lunch period. In the morning and evening I am going to put down my seven hundred words to keep going. I will be somewhat optimistic and say that this first draft will be finished by the end of the month.

No, really.

This year is going to be the year of Epic Fantasy. I am only work on two books: the aforementioned Medicine Show and Unbound – my really epic ‘Frankenstein Meets Lord of the Rings while cosplaying a Larry McMurtry novel’ series. These two books are definitely going to sent out to publishers. These are too good to risk self-publishing. Wish me luck!

I am really excited about starting these two books. Well, starting is not the right word. “Concluding” would be more accurate. I’ve have Unbound in my head since the middle to late nineties and Medicine Show is at least five years old. Yes, I take my time in putting books together, but the ones I do get together are really good.

Speaking of putting books together: Catastrophic Christmas Party is out on Kindle right now and will be put into paperback by the end of next week. I just need to re-format the manuscript for paperback printing. There’s a lot to get straight and it’s going to take a full day. I’ve done it before and let me tell you – it’s a pain in the butt, but I can at least tell someone “you don’t read e-books? That’s okay – it’s in paperback.”

So – this year is going to be super-productive, I’m sure. I got books finished, and I even got a book out there for sale. I can carry this momentum over to this year and get these two big books finished. Wish me luck.

“The Catastrophic Christmas Party” is now out for Kindle!

Well – Catastrophic Christmas Party is going to be released in December, but it might be closer to Christmas as I get the last little things lined up. Amazon does not make it easy to format your work for print – should I even do print? It’s about 40K words, barely a novel. I haven’t sold enough copies in either format to really give it a good study. Part of me is about to say that I should make it Kindle exclusive, but then I’ve run into people that say “I don’t buy Kindle books, only real books”. I might still do the paperback option this one time, but start going to only Kindle with another book or series.

Speaking of looming deadlines, I apologize for missing last Thursday. It was a hectic day and I never really got around to typing the blog, and honestly it would have just been me saying I’m writing the novel, about a third of the way finished and I’ve started outlining my next super big project. Just like what I’ve done today. At the very least, I am consistent.

As the year winds down, I’m going to go dark for a couple of weeks while I try to finish up the book, wrap gifts without losing fingers and watch a horror movie at Christmas (this year the movie is ‘Suitable Flesh’ with Heather Graham). I might even get lucky and watch more than one if the wife lets me.

This is a short post, I know – but there isn’t anything really new on the horizon until the beginning of the year. So, be safe this holiday season have some egg nog and leave out some cookies for Santa.

Well, as I am writing this blog post, I’ve done about 60,000 words on the novel Voices Abroad. I can’t tell you how giddy I am for not only getting this far in the novel, but for getting to 50,000 words in about nineteen days. I kept to my schedule, and now I’m one day away from meeting the goal of 50,000 words in thirty days and writing more than I have ever written before for a novel. Is it finished? Nope. I still have about 35,000 more words to do, but now I can slack off on the work count a little bit. Maybe either do 450 three times a day or do 650 twice a day and reclaim either the mornings or lunch time for reading and research. I really want to make sure I get the Gothic setting right for the novel – not my next one. That’s going to be The Marvelous and Malefic Doomsday Medicine Show. That one is going to get started in January.

It’s been a hard time, but somewhat fun this November. I’m aiming for next year to hit par – 1,700 words a day – everyday in a self-contained novel. I don’t think there are enough of those out there in fantasy, especially. Everything must be a three or five or seven novel series. I don’t mind it if the series is finished. I would like to have a novel that’s a self-contained, one-shot story. Something I can read one time, and possibly pick up again if I’m bored. Of course, I’m saying this as I try to stretch out one character’s story from three to five books. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Next year is going to be the Year of Fantasy. I am only going to focus on finishing up two projects: The Marvelous and Malefic Doomsday Medicine Show and The Ushabit Series. I might do a small novel for Nanowrimo next year, but most of my energy is going to finishing these long standing, longer suffering books. I might end up just restarting The Ushabit series from scratch with the outline and all that. I seem to write better when I have everything planned out in advance. Medicine Show is too far into itself to be re-done, so I’m going to muddle through it as best as I can and get it edited down after I get The Show Must Go On edited…which I may get that started next year. I know I’ve brought Serve Me Now to my writer’s group…but it doesn’t feel good to me. I think I rushed it to get done and out. Might just rip the whole thing down and restart it.

Thank you all for bearing with me this November while I engage in temporary madness. I’ll get back to the regular blogging schedule in time to take a week off for Christmas. Stay safe, have fun and I’ll see you in the next.

Nanowrimo has me wiped today. Have a kitten.

By the time you are reading this, I will be up to my hips in Nanowrimo…again. I think this is the fifteenth time I’ve done this, but this will be the third time I’ve won (God willing). Of course, the only thing I get for winning is bags under my eyes and a manuscript that needs some love and doctoring. But, hey – I don’t do these things because they are easy. I do them because they are hard.

Do I recommend Nanowrimo to everyone? Only if you want to see what it takes to be a dedicated writer now. I’m crazy and driven to do this. I’m one of those people that says ‘do it’ to anyone who says they wanted to be a writer. Go for it. Take this November to fire up your word processor and write 1700 words a day – about maybe two hours of time. You can miss a couple of shows. You don’t have to speak to your spouse all the time. Your pets can take care of themselves. Write to soothe the muse.

This blog is going to be a little short because I do have to get in my word count for the day, and I wanted to touch base a little. I didn’t want anyone to think I’d abandoned the blog again. Updates will come, but there won’t be a lot to it, sadly.

So – bear with me this month, keep writing and I will look forward to a more substantial update / after action report come December.