Month: September 2018

Yesterday didn’t turn into a great writing day, maybe got in an hour of editing and weaving new story ideas into the draft. All in all, I added another 778 words. Deleted other stuff.

For the rest of the day, we got out of the house, a little later than planned, and went to Malad Gorge for a few hours. We had initially planned to head into the Sawtooth Forest, but didn’t have the time, what with the kids needing to get to work and all.

On a positive note, I think all the necessary details and fun stuff have been plugged into the first draft. I’ve got about 10k to go through and make sure the story is clear before it’s off to editing.

I’m not entirely on schedule for the month, but I’m surprisingly close. Depending on what I get through today, I may well have only to drop one project. Two finished WIP’s in one week is pretty damn impressive anyway. I’m setting the bar high for next week. 😛

I was hoping to have the first draft of my novel finished today, and I’ve almost got all of my new ideas patched into it. I did not, however, spend much time on it yesterday. I edited a bit, and added 288 new words.

Even having a day off, if I fail to get up early, I run out of time.

Early for me is getting up around 4 or 5 am. Sometimes earlier. Getting up so early gives me time to myself, and I spent all of yesterday hanging out and playing with the family. I did need the sleep. I’m physically active enough that my body needs time to recover. I realize that sleep is good for me both mentally and physically, but I still resent the need for it. I would drop my sleep down to a few hours if I could.

Anyway, tomorrow. I’m going to try and wrap this novel up by tomorrow night.

I recently read an article (on Medium, I think) that said that you are the average of your type five friends. If you surround yourself with positive and successful people, well, that’s a good place to be. If your friends are negative and lazy… well…

When you take a look at your friends, do you find this applies? Do you surround yourself with the kind of people that you look up to and that inspire you?

Over the years, my circle of friends has shrunk, at least, as far as those I interact with and see often. Social media has kept the world smaller, and my circle of friends exists more heavily online than face to face. Best friends have moved away, and I either stayed in contact with them or let them fade away. And that’s a two-way street. It’s life, really.

It makes me think of the friendship and relationship dynamics of the Sims games. You don’t call or interact, friendships die.

So the ones you do stay in contact with, well, those are the ones who obviously matter. If you’re a writer, are your friends published? Do they actively market themselves? And I think more importantly, do you share within this circle your successes, so that you pull each other up?

It might seem weird to require your friends to meet a certain standard. But if you have a weird diet (like being a vegan), do your friends respect that, or attempt to sabotage you? If you need support (emotionally, spiritually, whatever), are they there for you?

Are you there for them?

Anyway, just thoughts.

I started August working on my novel I’m planning on finishing this week, and ended up coming up with a ton more stuff to add. I slept my morning away today (I’m physically exhausted) which is not good for my goals. I’m going to try to make it up, but we’ll see.

So yesterday amounted to only 786 new words and a bunch of brainstorming that I need to implement. It’s good stuff, so no regrets, and it only makes the book stronger (and more fun (IMHO).

Here we are, a month later after my last update. I obviously didn’t engage myself as I had planned. Yet though I’ve been silent, I’m really close to the release of another novel. I’m hoping it’ll be live within the next few weeks.

There are certain world events in my new novels I would like to tie together. Part of that depends on getting future stories out. So the events in The Unresting will be felt in my upcoming novels, as well as potentially bringing back some of the characters (though likely not right away). Anyway, it’s part of the brainstorming.

Finally, the other thing you’re going to see is a semi-shared world between myself and romance authors Gabbi Wright and W.G. Spencer. They introduced a shifter mythos in their Girl of Flames series, one that I helped create. You’ll see the tie-in with my next release, and maybe I’ll share some details at that point as well.