Gab Session
There's a bit of advice I've seen splashed around the internet that says: if you want to accomplish your goals, don't talk about them. By talking about your goals, supposedly, you get a false sense of accomplishment and never really do anything.
I'm not a fan of taking advice from random internet sources, or anyone really, so if you don't mind, I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about my current project. You see, I mentioned it last year, but I suffer from a made up syndrome called Summer Brain. When the mercury rises above 90° F, my ability to think creatively goes away. The problem with this, however, is that I try to fight it tooth and nail.
You see, despite trying to project this image of a free spirit with no timetables or boss to report to, I have been chugging along on a pretty strict schedule for a while now. You probably didn't notice, but since November, I have published something every 90 days. There's a reason for this. It keeps my silly little name on the new release list. In fact, that's the whole reason I waited until May 29th to release the Discordant box set. I also wanted to buy myself some time for my next release, since I'm starting fresh, having just completed that series. My next release is supposed to be August 29th.
I can tell you right now, that is not going to happen.
What I'd hoped to have was book one of an eventual space opera trilogy. Yes, this was the project I've been semi-jokingly calling Princess Robot Commander. I've got the bones, but the meat isn't there. I wrote a grand total of 65, 000 words, fifteen chapters, before I realized I had no idea what this dreck and drivel falling out of my brain even was. And before you say, but that's just the first draft, I'll have you know that that's not how I write. Plotholes I can fill, typos I can fix (mostly) but a meandering plot that has no real direction isn't fixable. That's a start over scenario and quite frankly, I'm tired of messing with it. I think this one will be my next Eyes, which means look for it sometime around 2022.
But I'm not just sitting here doing nothing. I have another book in the works, at least I'd like to have. Summer brain is holding me back, so I was hoping that maybe telling you all a little about it might help me focus. Well, sort of. You see, I don't want to give too much away. Earlier in the week, I posted a couple of clues to my Facebook page: the working title (Twigs) and the main character's birthday (May 16th). I've asked that anyone who thinks they know what this means to send me a message privately as not to spoil the surprise for everyone else.
So what can I tell you? Well, this one is a standalone young adult sci-fi thriller. Sound familiar? Yes, I figured it was time to add a little cohesion to my bibliography. This book will be meant to bridge the gap between fans of Kind of Like Life and The Eyes of The Sun. This as of yet unnamed book will follow Annabelle Swenson, an eighteen year old from Piper's Bend, WA (a fictional town readers of Kind of Like Life might recognize) who is attending her freshman year of college on the other side of the country thanks to a scholarship to Ravencrest University, a school hidden deep in the mountains of upstate New York.
What follows is the usual college woes, but also mystery, intrigue, mistaken identity, murder, and lots of carbohydrates. Annabelle and her gang of friends, some old, some new, some trustworthy, some not, find themselves playing amateur sleuth when it's revealed that their lives may be in danger. Why? Well... Let's just say Ravencrest is a top ranked school of science and for more, look to the clues above.
Sound interesting? I'm hoping to finally win my war on summer brain and publish this tale, a standalone with the potential for more in-universe works, some time this fall, hopefully in time to do a debut promo for the fall SIAFBB event. I've got an outline, several scenes already written out, and what I'm hoping is a strong opening where I shall once again lift my middle finger to the fiction police and have Annabelle awaken in the first sentence of chapter one. When I have more, I will surely post about it here.
I'm not a fan of taking advice from random internet sources, or anyone really, so if you don't mind, I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about my current project. You see, I mentioned it last year, but I suffer from a made up syndrome called Summer Brain. When the mercury rises above 90° F, my ability to think creatively goes away. The problem with this, however, is that I try to fight it tooth and nail.
You see, despite trying to project this image of a free spirit with no timetables or boss to report to, I have been chugging along on a pretty strict schedule for a while now. You probably didn't notice, but since November, I have published something every 90 days. There's a reason for this. It keeps my silly little name on the new release list. In fact, that's the whole reason I waited until May 29th to release the Discordant box set. I also wanted to buy myself some time for my next release, since I'm starting fresh, having just completed that series. My next release is supposed to be August 29th.
I can tell you right now, that is not going to happen.
What I'd hoped to have was book one of an eventual space opera trilogy. Yes, this was the project I've been semi-jokingly calling Princess Robot Commander. I've got the bones, but the meat isn't there. I wrote a grand total of 65, 000 words, fifteen chapters, before I realized I had no idea what this dreck and drivel falling out of my brain even was. And before you say, but that's just the first draft, I'll have you know that that's not how I write. Plotholes I can fill, typos I can fix (mostly) but a meandering plot that has no real direction isn't fixable. That's a start over scenario and quite frankly, I'm tired of messing with it. I think this one will be my next Eyes, which means look for it sometime around 2022.
But I'm not just sitting here doing nothing. I have another book in the works, at least I'd like to have. Summer brain is holding me back, so I was hoping that maybe telling you all a little about it might help me focus. Well, sort of. You see, I don't want to give too much away. Earlier in the week, I posted a couple of clues to my Facebook page: the working title (Twigs) and the main character's birthday (May 16th). I've asked that anyone who thinks they know what this means to send me a message privately as not to spoil the surprise for everyone else.
So what can I tell you? Well, this one is a standalone young adult sci-fi thriller. Sound familiar? Yes, I figured it was time to add a little cohesion to my bibliography. This book will be meant to bridge the gap between fans of Kind of Like Life and The Eyes of The Sun. This as of yet unnamed book will follow Annabelle Swenson, an eighteen year old from Piper's Bend, WA (a fictional town readers of Kind of Like Life might recognize) who is attending her freshman year of college on the other side of the country thanks to a scholarship to Ravencrest University, a school hidden deep in the mountains of upstate New York.
What follows is the usual college woes, but also mystery, intrigue, mistaken identity, murder, and lots of carbohydrates. Annabelle and her gang of friends, some old, some new, some trustworthy, some not, find themselves playing amateur sleuth when it's revealed that their lives may be in danger. Why? Well... Let's just say Ravencrest is a top ranked school of science and for more, look to the clues above.
Sound interesting? I'm hoping to finally win my war on summer brain and publish this tale, a standalone with the potential for more in-universe works, some time this fall, hopefully in time to do a debut promo for the fall SIAFBB event. I've got an outline, several scenes already written out, and what I'm hoping is a strong opening where I shall once again lift my middle finger to the fiction police and have Annabelle awaken in the first sentence of chapter one. When I have more, I will surely post about it here.
not sure of twigs and may 16th... I googled it and came up with some stuff, but nothing that means anything to me. So..... you have my attention. You are a hard working dedicated brain melting writer with an amazing work ethic and thought processes. We love you.
ReplyDeleteSo, yay! When can we expect it?
ReplyDeleteHeh. Funny you should ask. As soon as I wrote this, I hit a wall and put it aside, opting instead to work on something I came up with on a whim. Something that I'm actually almost ready to put out there. But this will be my next project. I tend to do better in the winter when it comes to more serious stories.
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