Writing In 2015: The Challenge Of The Series

I decided at the beginning of the month that I was going to participate in Camp NaNoWriMo. I'm still in it, but not sure if I'll hit my target count. One of the things I did from the outset was decide that I was going to work on my first sequel. The book is the second book in a series that I started in 2012 with a book called A Kingdom Of Shadows. I wrote it as the first book in a series on purpose, leaving some threads untied in the plots and allowing some characters to grow with the events of the story. 

But the story wasn't over yet. 

The Dawnbringer War as the series was called was just getting started. I needed to consider the sequel. I needed to serious think about the challenge of writing a series. But I let it go for a while. Nearly three years have passed. The story is still needs to be told. I do want to finish it. So I'm working on the sequel this month and will probably continue onwards into the following month. It's possible I could have the book completed around the time the first one was back in 2012. A Kingdom of Shadows had a September 11 release date.

This book I'm writing, The Isle of the Morning, will be followed up pretty directly by a third book. That's something I knew I wanted to do if I was going to start this book. I would work on the third one once the second was completed. Honestly, I have a sketch for the rest of the year that includes trying to finish up this series...unless The Dawnbringer War isn't a trilogy.

I've found that I've had to revisit the first book, reading over it, looking at the few notes I had, and basically try to reacquaint myself with the story I was created and the characters that experienced the opening movements of the epic I was was writing. This is a growing period and I'll probably get a little stressed as I try to work on all of this.

Other work, in other areas, must be balanced with what else I'm doing. The work I do as a publisher is challenging in its own way, but I'm excited by the work being done.

The Changing Moods of A Writer

Didn't you know? Us creative types are a wee bit unhinged sometimes. A give day can see a roller coaster like experience of moods before it comes to a crashing halt and they toddle off to bed. Up, down, so-so, truly maniacal, even zen-like sometimes. 

My current mood is reflected in the change of the site's appearance.  A splash of classic green, a bold use of fonts, and whamo--a totally different feel to it. Not sure how long I'll keep it this way, but for now it works. Well, it might need something else. Can't say for sure what it could be. I'll take suggestions from my readers. 

I also decided I needed a break from the consecutive "Writing In 2015" posts. I mean, there's more than this to this blog, I think. 

What I'm Reading

I've been reading more paper books lately. I went through this phase where I read a lot of ebooks and kind of got fatigued by the screen experience. There still is nothing like the weight, the feel, the smell, of paper books. As much as I like ebooks (and as much as my publishing company relies on ebooks) I still prefer paper. I'm not alone in that preference. Not much else to say about that, I guess. 

What am I ready, you dare ask?

Right now, three different paperbacks (two nonfiction books and a urban fantasy novel) sit next to me as I type this: 

1. The UFO Phenomenon by John Michael Greer

2. Discoverability by Kristine Katherine Rusch

3. Happy Hour In Hell by Tad Williams

I have others that I've started and set aside. Several really. I won't mention them here unless I add them to the aforementioned pile that I'm currently focusing on. Beyond paper, I've got several ebooks I'm in the process of reading. Probably a dozen or so. I just piece on them a little at a time, over a long time. Talk about a low attention span right? 

And The Writing?

Well. (Come closer, let me whisper it so everyone doesn't hear) I'm not writing fiction. Yeah, yeah, I know, I told you I was doing that Camp NaNoWriMo thingy. Well, I still am, technically. I haven't thrown in the grubby proverbial towel yet. It'll be a tighter deadline but I might just hit my 50K word target for July. 

I've been trying to come to grips with the story I chose to tell. It's a continuation of a series, so I've been reacquainting myself with the whole world and its cast. It's been percolating in my gray matter for a bit. I'll let you know whether I crash and burn or hit the bullseye on this one. 

Deep thought of the moment: What kind of writer am I really?

Writing In 2015: End of Month One

Well, January is basically over. I'm getting in the mode to review things a bit. Though I've made progress over all with staying in focus and getting work done, there is still room from improvement. My publishing company won the war of time this month. All told, we got five products out to readers and have every intention of getting five more out in February. I'm being very proactive as a publisher.

Writing, the focus above all else on this blog and in my writing life, went okay, but there were still several gaps in the flow where I just didn't get new words down. I have to work on that part going into February. I will do better. Just have to remember the maxim about having fun with it and not stressing out over what I can't control.

This whole year is about finding more balance in my life and making sure that writing and publishing get a share of the pie. I'll be exploring that process, as I said before, and that'll sure been fun all in itself.

One of my big focuses in the writing going forward is developing my skills with short fiction. That being said, I'm currently working on what I believe is a novel so there has to be room for some play concerning the project workload.

Short stories are intriguing to me. I've written several--some of which are available electronically--and I enjoy putting them together. It's a challenge for me. Short of announcing a formal challenge with a number I need to hit by year's end, I'll say that I do plan to do a lot of short fiction writing.

I have four novel started and am piecing on them when I can and hope to finish them all this year too.

I'm going to keep myself busy and do my best to get a lot good stories out to my readers.

Coming Soon: The Darkness Of The Deep and Other Realms, Volume One

With this year nearing its close, I wanted to come back here and give you some previews of what is coming in 2014. I've been trying to establish a bit of a plan for how I would work on different books and coordinate those projects with a publication schedule through my publishing company. When you try to balance the tightrope that is writing and publishing, you learn that not having a plan can lead to difficulties over the long-term.

I'm hoping to change that. I have two books coming out in the near future with a couple more on the way. At this time, I thought it would be nice to give you a taste of what's to come by showing you the covers to The Darkness Of The Deep, my first published fantasy novel since A Kingdom Of Shadows back in 2012.

In the same way, I have a collection of short stories, the first volume in what I'm planning as an ongoing series of collections titled Other Realms. This inaugural issue, Volume One, contains ten original, never-before-published short stories by me. Doing short stories helps keep me balanced between writing novels and novellas so I hope to keep up that work throughout 2014.

Another point I'd like to mention is that a few of my books currently available as ebooks will also make their way into print. (Finally!) I'm excited about those developments too and I will, of course, post about those updates as soon as possible.

2013 was a strange year and a difficult one in many ways. I was able to produce works of fiction despite the changes that were wrought and I'm glad for that. I hope that I'm getting better at this fiction writing thing. Only time will tell. I'm still having fun with all of this. Maybe I'll be able to make a living too.

Catch you later. I'll be updating about publication dates and other information as soon as those are available to me. Happy New Year. Make it a good one.

No NaNo Or How I Didn't Finish NaNoWriMo This Year

I had mentioned here that I was participating in NaNoWriMo this year in a previous post. (That post has since been deleted.) I'll have to admit I had high hopes for it this year. But life got in the way I won't be a NaNo author this year.

National Novel Writing Month is cool concept. I joined up a few years back but have never numbered among the winning participants. The logistics of writing 50,000 words in 30 days is a workable one. I have no doubt about that. In fact, I plan to aim for that sort of goal again. Obviously, at this point it won't be recorded. I won't get to have one of those nifty banners on my site identifying me as a NaNoWriMo winner.

At this point, my thought is to prep for writing a book in December. Will I make some official commitment to that? No. Heck, I could write two novellas instead. I think the important part is that I produce a boatload of fiction in the closing month of 2012.

I need to get back to writing stories. As mentioned in the previous post, I now have the flexibility now to be able to do this. I can focus on fiction pretty much exclusively and write novels, novellas, and short fiction.  I can publish my works via Founders House Publishing, send submissions to other publishers, and also do the same with short stories. There doesn't have to be a a division in my focus as a writer. This was an unexpected development.

So, no, I'm not a NaNo, but I might just get to be a novelist.