The Five Hundred and Seventy-Fifth Post: The One Where I Succeed Finally!

I finally did it! I got something finished before a (moved back twice) deadline! The Catastrophic Christmas Party is finished and off for editing and a first read through! I have a few days which I am going to use to start to do the spell-check and some lighter editing. The deep editing is going to happen during October and possibly November, but it looks like it will be ready by December, barring any unforeseen circumstances.

Shown: Relief

This is good, not only for morale, but I now have all of October to get my last horror book outlined and finish up the research – which is now solely about non-drug therapies for schizophrenia. That’s all I am doing in October to get it done before November first, when I take off for Nanowrimo. This book is going to be written during November and December and will hopefully break the 100K mark, which would make it the longest book I have ever written with the objective of putting it to market.

I haven’t has a successful year like this in a while, to be bluntly honest. It’s rare (sadly) that I finish a rough draft, and here I am sitting on three right now (Serve Me Now, The Show Must Go On, The Catastrophic Christmas Party) and gearing up for a fourth one to be finished before year’s end. Could I be maturing as a writer? I’m certainly not maturing as anything else….

As much as I would like to bask in the afterglow for a few minutes, I have to keep going. Next year is going to be fantasy, with the intent of finishing two long standing projects: Unbound and The Marvelous and Malefic Doomsday Medicine Show. I am hoping that finishing the untitled schizophrenia project will give me enough confidence to finish these two books over the course of the year. Maybe even tackle a third one? Who knows? If there is a third, I don’t know if it should be a sequel (Unbound is a part of a trilogy) or a new work (of which there are dozens…dozens I tell you).

Maybe this is a good idea – dedicating a year to a genre, getting things done and moving on? It worked with horror, and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work with fantasy and then the year after that with romance. Maybe that’s the best balance. A year gives me a chance to work on something but doesn’t really tie me down if my choices change. I can clear four books a year – long ones if I can hold steady, and if needed be, I can whip out a short one (like another Evan book) to keep ym name out there. I think I am going to run it that way.

Well, that’s all for now. I’m looking forward to getting started on a new project and completing it before year’s end. Check out the titles on the right if you’re curious as to how good I am, or how good my friends are. Until next time!

The Five Hundred and Seventieth Post: The One Where I Listen for the Whoosh of a Possibly Blown Deadline…

My confidence that I am going to complete the novel The Catastrophic Christmas Party by the end of August is waning rapidly. I have only myself to blame: I took on overtime which does cut into my writing time at home, but I need that money for next summer’s vacation. I am certain I can still get it done and published before the beginning of December. This one is not going before the writing group. My wife will read it and give advice, but this one’s going straight to Amazon like The Dreaded Day Job.

The novel itself is coming along in fits. The first part of the current chapter was a bit of a slog to get through, and the second part is coming along a lot better. I might want to consider coming back to that first part and tightening it up a bit when I begin the revisions. Having the whole conceit of the book ultimately being Evan at Christmas parties and various things going (hopefully) hilariously wrong does limit the scope, but I am having fun introducing the future love interest Sunny. It might not end up being a full 50,000 words, but closer to 40,000.

What else is going on? I got back the proof for the cover for The Show Must Go On and I am delighted with it. Next up is finish raising the capital to pay off the artist, who I will use definitely in the future. I do have tog et things together for the photoshoot for Christmas Party. I just wonder if my wife has a Santa’s cookie tray she doesn’t mind having a drill hole in it. Or maybe I’ll just buy one and sacrifice it for art. Also, need to buy an obnoxious Christmas sweater. For art, I swear.

Something less classy than this…

On the writing front there is not a lot going on beyond trying to finish this project and getting started on another (what it’s going to be is based on when I finish this current one). I haven’t even finished the outline for the werewolf book. It just slipped under the radar in the rush to get Christmas Party started. I might start it since I have quite a few chapters outlined, and just write the rest of the outline while I’m writing the first part of the book. Try to kill two birds with one stone as it were. Or hit two werewolves with one silver bullet.

I guess that’s all for now. Wish me luck in finishing up this slight interruption to the Year of Horror. I’ll see y’all later.