I feel sorry for my wife. She needs a lot more sleep than I do. If I can get four uninterrupted hours of zzz, I’m doing great. Of course, how long I can keep that going is an open question—and one we put to the test every time we have a new baby. But he’s getting better, and in another month or two, he’ll probably (hopefully) be sleeping through the night.
Things are going pretty well around here. The house is a wreck, but a manageable one. Still need to finish unpacking from the move, but that’s a long-term project at this point. The kids are doing well. Wife and baby seem to be doing well. She’s got her thesis defense in a couple of weeks, at which point the PhD is fully off her plate. Which will be nice for all of us.
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve mostly been bouncing between different projects, making a little progress on each, but not really finishing or making significant progress on any of them. Hopefully, that will soon begin to change.
For the next couple of weeks, I plan to work on Captive of the Falconstar, moving it along as far as I can. Mostly, though, I just want to keep it fresh in my mind, since if four or five months go by without working on it, it’s going to be that much harder to pick it up again.
I’m really excited to get back to work on this one. My subconscious brain has been mulling over this story for the past few years, and I think the time is ripe to put it on the page. I’m also a lot more skilled at writing with AI, which makes a huge difference. The first time I attempted this WIP, I think I bit off more than I could chew. But with the AI draft of The Soulbond and the Sling under my belt, I’m very confident that I can finish this one.
My goal is to publish it this spring/summer, along with the third book in the trilogy, Lord of the Falconstar. That might be a little too ambitious, but with the baby already 1+ months old and our lives slowly settling into a reasonable routine, I think it’s good to start planning these things again. The rough AI draft is already complete, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to pick up from Captive of the Falconstar when the time comes. Really, it’s more like one really long story split in the middle.
In another couple of weeks, I plan to pick up The Soulbond and the Sling again, mostly just to keep it fresh. I’ll also be working on the rough AI draft for book 2, The Soulbond and the Lady, working out the chapter prompts and everything else. Instead of rushing through that one, I plan to take my time and get it right. Hopefully that will make the rest of the AI drafting process go much more smoothly.
That should keep me busy until Thanksgiving. Again, the goal is not to finish any of these projects, but to work on them enough to keep them fresh in my mind. Of course, there is a mental cost to switching between WIPs too frequently, so I’ll still try to make significant progress on each of them while I can.
After Thanksgiving, I plan to work on The Unknown Sea until it’s done and ready to publish. I’ve already been making really good progress on this one, and the only reason I laid this WIP aside was to keep the others fresh. But once I pick it up again, I think it will go quickly, and I may even be able to finish the final polished draft before Christmas.
Of course, there are only three full weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, and the holiday season is always busy with family stuff. We’re staying home this year—no traveling across the country to spend the holidays with family (we did that over summer). But I’m sure it’s going to be an eventful season, especially with the new baby. So I might end up picking up The Unknown Sea a little before Thanksgiving, just to get a head start.
And now, I can hear the kids waking up in the room above me, so it’s time to schedule this post and get started with another day. With luck, maybe I can get a little writing in before things get too crazy.
