I’m contemplating a release schedule.
THAT statement gets me excited! 😀 I hope it does for you too. Its been too long since I released something (last May!) and that feels especially silly when I have three finished novels and two at the halfway point. Of course finished means writing and my edits. There are still final edits and formatting. And I’m juggling re-formatting my existing work to ensure a smooth transition when I leave my publisher in May.
So that means a wicked desire to get work out to YOU that needs to be balanced with not taking on so much I’m in a panic from now until August! Ack. I finally tossed my hands in the air and decided it would begin when it was ready to begin.
This week will focus on my normal three chapters of the Fight for Peace, book 3 of the dark fantasy series Friends of my Enemy. That will put me at chapter 23! Which means only around ten chapters until it is finished! That is two to three more weeks after this: by the end of March even if things crumble on me. That is the final book in the as yet to be released series. I feel tingly to be so close to having it complete, even if it means that I have a lot of editing in my future. And I’ll still be inching Spark of Defiance along, the first book in my next epic fantasy series. I’m starting chapter 18 and things are really picking up.
But I’ll definitely make time this week to focus on final edits for the first short story that will be released as part of Stories from the War, the prelude to book 1 of Friends of my Enemy. My husband and I spent hours over the weekend designing 9 covers: 8 for individual short stories and 1 for the compilation of all 11. They looks awesome and I’m happy to have the cover art done as well as the stories written. I just need to finish those edits and format! Expect to see some new work soon!
I was laughing to myself on Sunday night. My Friday blog post on Overcoming Writer’s Block became far too relevant. I was stuck on chapter 20 of the Fight for Peace. It was my last chapter for the week that I wanted to get done to stay on schedule and it just wasn’t happening. I put it aside and tackled chores and tried again. Nothing. We went cross country skiing. Ideas emerged, but when I opened the document the spark died.
At that point it became persistence and work. Not all writing is fun. But chapter 20 is a big and exciting chapter, and gosh darn it I was determined to write it. I knew what was supposed to happen, but I kept getting lost in the details of how. Flash forward several grueling hours and at least three versions when I re-read what I’d written. Bits were great, but there was a point it felt too long. I’ve made the observation before when a story feels like it just got trapped in a labyrinth and you wonder why the heck the writer didn’t just cut to the chase. Do the characters really need to go back and forth when the door is halfway down the corridor? No. I cut it. OMG then it all started to flow. I couldn’t type fast enough to keep up and those are the writing moments I love! Of course that was at about 7 at night… dinner ended up being VERY late, but man I was so happy to finally have that chapter done and feeling happy about it. 🙂
Have a great week!
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