Tag: Worldcon 2013

No new books this month, but the next few should be stacked.

I’m working on Star Wanderers: Deliverance (Part VIII) right now, and it’s coming along swimmingly.  Where the other novellas are pretty much character dramas in a space opera setting, this one is more space adventure with the character / relationship stuff under the surface.  It’s all about Mariya and Lucca, how they meet and end up falling for each other in some very extreme circumstances.  I think they crash-land on Zarmina in chapter 3, and things just get crazier from there.  Today, I wrote a scene with some giant reptilian bird-monsters, and I think I pounded out 1,000 words in 20 minutes.

So yeah, I’m having a lot of fun with that.  The next one I’m going to publish, though, is Benefactor (Part VI), and I still have to do a lot of revisions on that one.  So it probably won’t be out until next month sometime, probably closer to August–I want to make sure it’s as good as I can make it.  But since the first draft of Reproach (Part VII) is already finished, it (hopefully) shouldn’t be much longer than that for it to come out, maybe in August.  And Deliverance should come out soon after that.

For now, my goal is to finish Deliverance this week, and start the revisions for Benefactor immediately after that.  It would be awesome to get these books out in July > August > September, though it might be more like July > September > October.  Definitely, I’ll have Part VIII out before the holidays, perhaps even Part IX or X as well.

In the meantime, I just started typesetting the print edition of Stars of Blood and Glory and set Desert Stars and Genesis Earth for expanded distribution through CreateSpace.  There’s been some interesting developments in print-on-demand in the past few months, which may make it possible to get my books in bookstores through that venue.  I still need to do some research on that end, but I do want to get the print versions out there at least.  My first priority, though, is definitely writing.

There’s been a great deal of interest in my Star Wanderers ebooks, not at blockbuster levels but certainly more than I was expecting.  And it’s growing, too–June is already my best month ever sales-wise, and most of the reviews have been quite positive.  If the momentum keeps up with the next few books in the series, I might (might!) be able to go full-time before the end of the year.  Worldcon 2013 is definitely looking like a possibility, and if I can find some friends to room and/or drive down with, chances are good that I’ll be going.

So yeah, thanks for all your support and interest!  This has been my dream for a long, long time, so it’s really gratifying to see it finally within my grasp.  I definitely don’t take it for granted, so I will do all I can to write more and better stories for you guys.  My goal is to write more than a hundred novels & novellas, and I’m already on track to do so!

I’ll leave you with this video from Georgia, which I still miss almost every day.  Man, I need to find another place that I can fall in love with as much as I did with that country.  A small part of me wants to say “screw it all” and go back … in any case, here’s the video:

Naxvamdis!

4:04 hours and 2.8k words. Not bad!

You know, sometimes I miss the days when I would churn out 1,000+ badly written words and throw up a badly written blog post, still reeling in awe from a white-hot creative heat.

Well, I think those days are coming back!  Except hopefully, my writing has improved since then.  Today was the first day I hit my four hour writing goal, and it was awesome.  Also, I wrote over a thousand words in two different projects: The Sword Keeper (which is my primary project right now) and Star Wanderers: Benefactor (a secondary project, though that may change in a month or so).  Not bad!

The really cool thing, though, is that when I woke up, my brain was actually wordsmithing.  It was weird–I was actually crafting sentences in my sleep.  Of course, being an idiot, I didn’t actually sit my butt in the chair until around 11:00 am.  Still, the words came out all right, and they didn’t stop coming all day.

I think my new time tracking goal is going to work out really well.  For most days this week, I managed to get at least 3:00 hours in.  Also, I noticed a lot of interesting things about the way I write.  Starting is the hardest part, especially first thing in the day.  Frequent short breaks can help, but the internet is a huge trap and should definitely be cut from my writing computer.  If I can’t manage 500 words/hour, chances are I’m not going to stay put for very long, but once I hit 800 wph, it’s smooth sailing.

Keeping a daily time goal also makes me conscious of a lot of things.  For example, when I first wake up, I look at the clock and think “if I do my full four hours right now, I’ll be finished by XX:XX.” That motivates me to start earlier, since it means I can finish earlier (or at least have less pressure later when I’m tired).  Also, it motivates me to write for longer lengths at a time, rather than writing in short, less productive bursts.  And even though I’m still keeping track of how many words I write, the pressure to hit a certain word count is less, since once the four hours are up, the goal is accomplished no matter what’s on the page.

Of course, all this mean I’m actually writing more.  Even on the days when I didn’t hit the full four hours, I wrote a lot more than I otherwise would have.  And the neat thing about writing is that the more you do it, the easier it comes.  It takes a while to build momentum, of course, but if you can just ease back on your inner editor and let the words come, they really will come.

So the next few days are going to be interesting.  I’m leaving Massachusetts on Sunday, to take the train across the country.  That will give me plenty of writing time, I’m sure, but once I arrive in Utah, things are going to get tricky.

My first priority will be finding an apartment, then a job–probably a crap job, though in this economy even those can be hard to find.  From what I’ve heard, things haven’t changed much since I left.  My writing is starting to take off, though, so I’m not too worried about the long-term–it’s the short-term that’s going to be a challenge.

I don’t know how long I’ll stay in Utah this time, but definitely until the summer.  There’s a lot of old friends to look up, and writing conferences to attend.  If I’m not totally broke by August, I’ll do my best to attend Worldcon as well.

That’s just about it for now.  I’ve got a lot of chores tomorrow, so I’d better get some sleep.  Later!