A writing update

It’s been awhile since I’ve done any sort of behind the scenes update, so I thought I’d take some time to do that today. Frankly between the continued gun violence and the election, I’d like to just talk about writing today.

My current schedule’s been a little nuts. I’ve got a ton of writing projects that have to be interspersed between some health issues with my mother in law and some health issues with me. Now, this month, the back to school season is starting, which means my house is getting crazy. We’ve got equipment coming in the mail, classes to sign up for, new clothes and supplies to buy, schedules to plan. It’s the same everywhere, I suppose. Any schedule change throws me for a loop, though. So I’ve been getting up early to squeeze two hours of writing time in before I leave for the day job. This is great, because I head off to work already feeling like I’ve accomplished something. But it also means that by the time I get home from the day job, I’m pretty much spent. Mostly I just want to lay on the couch and watch Bojack Horseman. (More on that next week.)

Even in the crazy season, though, I have stuff to do. And I’m getting a lot done. Here’s where I am right now.

Woven

I’m getting kind of emotional about Woven, at this point. I’m still looking for an agent or indie publisher for the first book, Broken Patterns. Been looking since November, but I refuse to be discouraged. It will happen, or I’ll self-publish. Either way, all I can do is keep on submitting. In the meantime, I am super excited to report that I just finished the rough draft of the third book in the series, Missing Stitches! It finishes out the trilogy, and it’s very bittersweet. I’m working now on the third draft of the second book, Starting Chains. I always like third drafting. The story is there, and it’s solid by that draft. I’ve just got to make sure that it flows right and make minor plot changes. I’ve written the next book, so I can add little things in from that, so that the whole series fits together like puzzle pieces. It’s a good time.

My short fiction

Since I’m no longer rough drafting, I’m spending a little more time on short fiction. Not because editing takes any less time, but because I always like to be making something new. I hope all of you have been enjoying the pieces that I’ve been posting here on PBW. My plan is to create some new short story collections once I’ve written enough. Hopefully I’ll get at least one of these collections done by the end of the year.

The secret project

I’m not ready to give away everything about the secret project just yet. Here’s what I will tell you, though. It’s Science Fiction, It’s almost done, and you’ll have access to it on October 5^th. See, I worked a deadline in there to keep myself at my freaking desk.

By the way…

Some of you might already know this, but August 31^st marks the second year anniversary of Paper Beats World. I’ll be doing a pretty huge post that week full of thank you’s and lessons learned over the last two years. For now, let me just say that I’m truly humbled by how many people come to my little corner of the internet. Especially now that I’m posting more of my own fictional work, every one of you means so much to me.

Thank you.

Stay tuned.