As you read this, it’s June 29^th. So, we’ve got two days left in the second quarter of the year already.

The year is halfway over, already. That’s a hard concept for me to wrap my mind around, honestly. This year has been a real challenge, and I’m really not where I wanted to be when I made my plans for the year.

If that’s where you are too, then I’ll tell you the same thing I’m telling myself. There’s no sense beating yourself up for what didn’t get done. All you can do is learn from the first six months so that you can do better in the next six months. So, as I’m doing my second quarter review, there’s just one thing I’m asking myself.

Why didn’t this get done?

For so many years I would beat myself up for not being as productive as I thought I should be. It took me a long time to grow up and realize that sometimes I can work as hard as I can and still not finish everything. I can do my best, and still not succeed. And it doesn’t do me any good at all to berate myself for something that is just right out of my control. As it turns out, every single one of the following things happened to me in the last six months.

A project took longer than I thought it would.

Good news for you Station 86 fans, I’m currently working on the second draft of book 4, Station Central. Bad news, it’s not half done yet. Sorry. But something happened when I was part way through that derailed my whole work schedule. I had to put it aside to work on the extended ending of Virus. (Have you pre-ordered Virus yet? Don’t forget, the price goes up after it’s published.) And I realized that I have done this every single time I’ve written a Station 86 book. I wait until I’m almost ready to publish it before I even start thinking about the extended ending. I told myself at first that I was doing it to make sure they were an appropriate bridge between books, but that’s no longer an issue. I know what’s happening in the series now. I don’t need to write book 5 to know what I need to bridge to it. So, I decided to write the extended ending for Station Central now, so I can edit and polish it right along with the rest of the book. That meant quite a bit of rough drafting. But those chapters are pretty good, and I think they’re going to sing.

The point is, I was working right along, but now the project is going to take longer. And it’s way better to let the project take the time it needs to take then to rush it and mess it up. The solution to this is pretty simple. Move the deadline, and move on with a light heart.

I had to wait for others to complete part of my project.

This doesn’t often come up with my writing, but sometimes it does. The launch of Starting Chains took a lot longer than I wanted it to because the publisher had other books in line to launch first. There’s nothing wrong with that. Nothing really to complain about, certainly. But it did mean that my plans had to change dramatically because I needed to wait for Starting Chains to launch before I could set launch dates for the other books I intended to publish this year. It means that I probably won’t be publishing six books this year.

Which is really no big deal. If a launch gets moved to 2019, it’s not the end of the world.

The fix to this is that there is no fix. Sometimes things aren’t in our control. And if you’ve got to wait for someone else to complete their half of a project, you’ve got to wait. Work on something else while you do.

A project wasn’t as important as others.

There’s this one project I’ve had on the back burner for quite a while now. It’s not a big thing, just something I thought would be an easy project to knock out in a month and get out there.

And it would have been an easy project, and it should have taken no time at all. Except that I had other projects that mattered more. So I kept not doing it and not doing it. Because it just wasn’t as much of a priority as other things.

Mind you, I really never intended this to take up a lot of my time. It was just something I thought might be fun. I’m not using this as an excuse to shirk a project that I’ve fallen out of love with. I genuinely don’t care as much about this one as others.

The fix for this one is to put this project in its proper place in my life. It will get done when it gets done. I still think it’s a neat little idea so it gets to stay on my radar.

I planned too many things at one time.

Like, way too many things. I had myself working on three or more projects at a time, and that’s just too much.

The fix for this one is to be more realistic in the second half of the year. When I sit down to complete the second quarter review and third quarter planning from my Lisa Jacobs YBY 2018 planner, I’m going to be more mindful of what’s realistic in six months and what’s not.

Life happened, and my priorities changed.

As I said, 2018 has been hard. I was working too much, and now my life is literally completely different than it was. Different than it has been for the last 14 years, actually. I’m in the middle of moving and figuring out what my life looks like now. That’s hard, and it’s taking a lot of my time.

So not as much time is there to go into my writing projects. When the move is over, I should have more time than ever to write, but that’s still a little ways away. And even then, I’m more aware than ever that life can change in a second, and all my carefully laid plans can be blown away.

The fix for this is to accept it. Life is going to change, no matter how hard you try to keep it the same. When that happens the only thing you can do is regroup, and move along as best you can.

But I want to hear from you? How has your year been so far? Are you where you wanted to be, or do you need to reconsider your course for the rest of the year?

I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone that I love comedians and stand up. When asked to list my heroes, there are four women who top my list; Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball, Amy Poehler and Tina Fey in that order. These women were never afraid of being exactly who they are, and who they are is funny as hell. They don’t care about being ladies, getting married or structuring their lives to suit the world around them. They did what they wanted, and they were good at it.

Poehler and Fey both got their start in improv in New York. I went into this in some detail when I talked about Yes, Please, Poehler’s autobiography. Because it was so influential in their lives, I had to learn about it. And, as you might have guessed, I learned that the rules of improv can dramatically improve your free writing and first drafts.

Here’s how.

Rule one, say yes!

The first rule of improv is to say yes! What this means is, if you’re working with a partner and they say, “We’re flying to Jamaica on the back of a trumpeter swan that will only fly if we bang coconuts together,” you have to roll with that scenario. You’re not allowed to say, “Janice, that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard, and I’m not doing it. Obviously, you’d fly to Jamaica on the back of a swallow.” Even if a swallow would be the obvious Monty Python reference that Janice was obviously going for with her coconut theory.

When writing, sometimes we find that the story wants to go in a different direction than we initially planned. And while I’m a steadfast believer that you should have at least some form of an outline, I also don’t think that it’s a bad idea to defer from that outline. In other words, say yes to your story taking a different turn. It might be terrible, or it might be way better than your original idea. But that’s for the second draft to decide. The first draft should just say yes!

Rule two, say yes, and!

Improve is best done with a group of people who add to the other person’s original idea. If all you do is agree to everything the other person is saying, you’re going to be a bad improv partner. So, whatever setup someone’s just made, it’s your job now to build on it. So, if you have Janice as a partner, you might say, “Yes, and then I drop one of my halves of the coconut into the ocean, so I have to clap with my hand. But the swan knows it’s only half, so it’s only flapping one wing!”

When you have a good idea, you need to build on it. What’s the next step from where you are? What can you add? What would be a logical but unexpected thing to happen next?

Rule three, make statements.

You don’t ask questions in improv, you make statements. You don’t ask, “What should we do next?” You boldly say, “Janice, we’re landing on that random island, like it or not, and I know it’s not Jamaica because this swan is only flapping with one wing.”

I am trying to incorporate this into my everyday life more. I tend to ask people things I should tell them. “Do you mind if I-?” That sort of thing. I shouldn’t be passive in my life, I’m a grown woman.

As far as our writing goes, though, I consider this a deceleration of war on passive voice. Unless I am writing a passive character, I despise the passive voice. How do you know you’re writing in the passive voice? This is one I learned from Rebecca Johnson. “If you can insert ‘by zombies’ after the verb, you have a passive voice.”

Don’t get eaten by zombies. Make statements.

Rule four, there are no mistakes, only opportunities.

Let’s say you’re doing improv, and you trip over an uneven spot on the stage, fall over and crack your knee on the ground. You’re probably going to shout something obscene if you’re anything like me. If you did that under normal settings, you might brush off your pants, apologize, and move on. But in improv, you just roll with it.

If you botch a line or tell a bad joke, it’s not a mistake. It’s an opportunity.

The same is true for our writing, there are no mistakes. Truly, if we are making up our own worlds there are no mistakes. So, if you’re looking back at something you’ve published, and you think you messed something up, keep that in mind. It’s just an opportunity to make something better.

Josey finds an AA meeting.

Josey was new in town, working two jobs and reeling from her divorce. She needed a lot of things, but most of all she needed a meeting. She finds one in the basement of her local library. But the meeting that she finds isn’t the one that she’s expecting.

Summer’s not my favorite season. My favorite season is Fall. Fall is perfection. Everything is Pumpkin Spice flavored, it’s chilly, Halloween rocks, stationery sales abound.

But Summer is my second favorite season. It’s as far from Spring as we can get, for one thing. Kennywood is open, and so is the pool. I can sit out on the back deck, and sip iced coffees. It’s not a living nightmare to walk the dog, in fact, it’s kind of nice. And I can grow things!

I think that Summer will always hold good feelings for us. It’s a reminder of times of freedom from our childhood. For me, that meant days of doing pretty much whatever I wanted around the house.

Every season gives us new opportunities to explore our world. We should take advantage of every season, even if it just means adjusting where it is we’re reading. So, here’s what I have planned for this summer.

• I’m going to have breakfast on the back porch as much as possible. Even if it’s just a cup of coffee.
• As much as I can, I intend to sleep with the window open.
• I also plan to cook out at least once a week. Even if it’s just hot dogs and some store-bought potato salad.
• We are blessed in our town to have an actual drive-in movie theater. I might not be able to see a lot of movies there, but I want to go see at least one.
• Another awesome thing my town is doing this Summer is called ‘Foodie Friday’. A bunch of food trucks take over downtown, and there’s a live band. We’ll be making it to as many of those days as possible.
• My dog has been going crazy wanting to be outside, so I’m giving him what he wants. We’re going for long walks and enjoying the fresh air. Hopefully, it will work some of the crazy as hell energy out of him.
• Summer doesn’t mean that I’m not writing, it just means that I’m writing at different times. The early rising sun encourages me to get up earlier, so I’ve taken to writing in the morning before I go to my day job.
• While I do love my e-reader, I’ve found that I cannot read it outside in the sunshine. But, since I’m loathed to buy all new physical books, I often find myself re-reading books I already have. This is actually a great way to spend a lazy afternoon, in my opinion. Personally, I expect to read my way through Series of Unfortunate Events, 10^th Kingdom, and maybe even Phantom Tollbooth.

So, what are you doing to celebrate the Summer season? Let us know in the comments below!

A dinner out, a trip to the library and a new house. None of these things should result in a living nightmare. But they do. Read twelve tales of terror for free. Click here to download your copy.

As you might have noticed, I’ve been watching a lot of Nostalgia Critic recently. I’ve shared some of the videos on social media, and I’ll give you a link here in case you want to check him out.

I watch his videos for a lot of reasons. For one thing, I love nerd rage. Actually, I kind of love hearing people yell about stuff. I know, that sounds really dumb. But I do have a valid reason. People don’t yell if they’re not passionate. You have to care about something to get to the point of screaming about it. And in a world where it feels like people just don’t care about anything, I love people who care.

What the Nostalgia Critic cares about is movies and tv shows from when we were kids. (Oh yeah, he and I are a similar age.) He cares about these things enough to look back at them with a critical eye and talk about what worked for these stories. To a much larger extent, he talks about what didn’t work.

And let me tell you, you can learn a lot talking about what doesn’t work in a story. It’s not just because it’s entertaining to hear the man yell (though it really, really is). It’s not just that I feel vindicated when he rips apart Batman and Robin (though it really, really does). It’s that as he picks away at the stories of our childhood, I learn what sort of things fall flat in the eyes of a reader.

Ordinarily, this would be where I’d go over a list of lessons I learned from Nostalgia Critic. But that’s a little more difficult in this case. Every movie or tv show is different, and each video is a case study in why this particular thing worked or didn’t work. But things that worked for one movie are the kiss of death for another. Things that worked amazingly well for one show made another one stink out loud.

I suppose that’s one lesson that can be derived from Nostalgia Critic. Every story is different, and there are no fast and true rules about what is going to work and what isn’t. The complexities of genres, modern tastes, age ranges and a million other things mean that we can’t possibly say that there’s a formula for good storytelling. If there was, we’d all write such amazing stories that there would be no more need to have a best seller list. That’s why editing and beta reading is so crucial because you really don’t know if a story will work until it’s done.

I know that, as creatives, we tend to look down upon the critics. What have they done, that they can sit in judgment of us? How dare they take the work that we poured our souls into and rip it up with such wild abandon? Have they ever written anything? Have they ever put anything into the world?

In many cases, yes. For one thing, reviews are entertaining if done well. They are themselves a form of creativity, just not the same sort that we work in.

In addition to that, critics perform a service for the average person. They encourage us creators, hopefully, to elevate our work. They point out our flaws not to condemn us, but to help us grow. But they’re not our coaches, our editors or our doting parents. They’re not on our side, they’re on the side of the reader. So, they don’t have to pull their punches and they often don’t. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t learn something from honest criticism.

I highly advise checking out Nostalgia Critic if you get a chance. I can assure you, it’s not a waste of your time.

Yes, I do grasp the irony that I just reviewed a reviewer. It’s kind of like looking into a mirror with another behind you. But I’m okay with that.

Harold spent most of his son’s life protecting him from the man in the woods, while his neighbors lost child after child. Then, after a deadly car crash, he has to take his sixteen-year-old granddaughter into his home.

These are always my favorite posts to do. For obvious reasons, I’m sure.

So many of you loved Virus, that it was the most read Station 86 book to date. I am so overjoyed that so many of you loved it, and showed up every week to read the next episode. These episodes will remain live until June 27^th, at which point they will be pulled. So, here are links to all of them, so that you get a chance to read them before they’re gone.

Episode One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty-One, Twenty-Two

In addition to Virus being the most popular Station 86 story, it was also the longest by far. Even so, the story isn’t over. There’s another episode waiting to be revealed, in the e-book.

And you can pre-order it now for 99 cents!

The book will officially launch on July 13^th. Anyone who pre-orders will pay just a dollar.

Thank you, as always, for reading Station 86. I can’t wait to show you what comes next.

As some of you may have guessed, I’m going through some major personal issues right now. I can’t talk about it here yet, but I promise that I will explain someday. Probably in the form of a book.

Because of this, I’ve been writing a lot. That’s not uncommon, I write a lot all the time. That’s kind of my thing, you know? I write books, short stories, and blog posts. I write pretty much every day. And what I write usually goes into the public eye very quickly.

A lot of what I’m writing right now is not for the public eye. A lot of it will never be in the public eye because I didn’t write it for anyone else but me. I’m writing journal entries, poetry, letters, notes. I’m writing just to scream onto the page about what’s going on. I’m writing because I only see my therapist once a week. I’m writing, for the first time in a long time, purely for me.

We don’t do that as writers. At least not once we’re to the point where people are paying us for our writing. Pre-publication everything we write is for ourselves. Once you start getting fans waiting for your next installment it starts being different. Almost all of what we write starts out being just for us but eventually must be edited and shaped for others.

Sometimes we need to step away from that, and write something just for us. Especially if your life is in chaos, or if you’re just trying to deal with a lot of stuff. Because when we write for others when we share our writing with others, we are sharing parts of ourselves. We’re sharing our souls for space in someone else’s heart. Normally I think that’s a pretty good trade.

But sometimes, sometimes we need to just write for ourselves. We need to write in our journal, write bad poetry, write stories that are experimental and not really complete yet. We need to sketch out dialog that isn’t right, and scenes that we would never want to share. Please, write about sex, and anger, and fear. Write the things you don’t want anyone to know, then burn the page you write it on.

Write for the world, because the world needs stories. But write for yourself, because you need to keep something for you.

I know it’s the weekend, and I’m sure you’re all busy. So I wanted to make sure that you all got a chance to grab Starting Chains while it’s still on sale. And today’s the last day.

After years of war between Montelair and Septa, the two thrones are united by family. Victor’s nephew, Morgan, is sharing the throne with the last heir of the royal line, Jacob. He and Lenore decide to travel to Montelair with their newborn daughters to help broker peace.

But peace among their own people is harder to achieve. The city is tormented by a terrorist who calls himself The Tinker. He and his group of anarchists plant bombs through the city and call for the death of the new kings from every street corner.

Meanwhile, in Calistar, Sultiana and Devon are marching to war with Kussier. The ancient hatred between the two countries is sprung anew when Sultiana is declared heir to the Calistar throne.

Waiting at the border, though, is a much darker enemy. A force from legend threatens to consume both countries, and possibly the world.

Click here to grab your copy.

Starting Chains is still on sale today, so don’t forget to grab your copy. Here’s a link.

After years of war between Montelair and Septa, the two thrones are united by family. Victor’s nephew, Morgan, is sharing the throne with the last heir of the royal line, Jacob. He and Lenore decide to travel to Montelair with their newborn daughters to help broker peace.

But peace among their own people is harder to achieve. The city is tormented by a terrorist who calls himself The Tinker. He and his group of anarchists plant bombs through the city and call for the death of the new kings from every street corner.

Meanwhile, in Calistar, Sultiana and Devon are marching to war with Kussier. The ancient hatred between the two countries is sprung anew when Sultiana is declared heir to the Calistar throne.

Waiting at the border, though, is a much darker enemy. A force from legend threatens to consume both countries, and possibly the world.

Recently I’ve been binge-watching Brooklyn 99 from the beginning. And I honestly love it so much. If you recall, I once said that I want to live in a world where the government is like West Wing and the news is like Newsroom. Let me add to that, that I’d like to live in a world where the police are all like the ones on Brooklyn 99.

Brooklyn 99 is a really great show. It’s funny, heartfelt, and has a great cast of characters. It’s also incredibly progressive. I would consider it a perfect model for anyone wanting to write a modern story that shows what our society could be.

Screw stereotypes

Stereotypes are blown out of the water on this show. The women detectives are just as tough as the men. The gay captain is the most stoic, non-frilly stick up his ass character I’ve ever seen. The sergeant is a hugely massive man who had to be taken out of the field after his daughters were born because he feared dying and leaving them alone. They’re all real people. They all behave as you’d expect a real person to behave.

Representation matters

With the diverse cast, the show obviously sometimes deals with moral issues that we face. In one episode, the Sargent (played by the amazing Terry Crews) is harassed by a uniformed officer from another precinct, because he’s out walking in the streets of his neighborhood at night. In another episode, Detective Diaz comes out as bisexual to her parents. Captain Holt occasionally brings up the fact that as a black gay man he had to fight to be accepted. These are things that I can’t believe we’re still dealing with in 2018! But since we are still dealing with them, I’m glad to see them dealt with in such great ways.

Funny people are usually endearing

Brooklyn 99 is a comedy. That’s its main goal. And all of the characters are genuinely funny. Gina’s strange, self-centered outlook that somehow manages to manifest in introspection is hilarious. Detective Santiago’s constant type A actions and her adoration of Captain Holt is usually good for a self-deprecating laugh on my part. And really, anything Boyle does is so sad sack wonderful.

We inherently like people who make us laugh, simple as that. The most popular characters in anything are rarely the straight-laced, big muscled hero who saves the day. They’re usually the Xanders, the Chandlers. They’re the funny ones.

A running gag or well-established trope can be used in so many ways

Jake Peralta, one of the main characters, has several repeated phrases. The most popular is probably, “Sure, sure, sure. Cool, cool, cool.” Repeated quickly, and usually with his typical eight years old who just got a pack of pokemon cards grin.

In the episode where Jake is sent to jail for a crime he didn’t commit, he repeats that phrase, “Cool, cool, co-co-cool,” when he hears the verdict. It’s something that he’s said a thousand times, and always with a smile. But at that moment, he looked so afraid, so broken. He obviously didn’t think that this would ever really happen to him. You can see his heartbreak. And that wouldn’t have worked as well if that line hadn’t been so ingrained in the character.

Love is always a great story

The love story between Amy and Jake is a great one. Never once does it feel forced. Never does it become the whole focus of the show. Always is it sweet and endearing? They are strong people on their own and have a healthy relationship together. It’s nice to see an honest, healthy relationship on tv. There’s not enough of that.

But friendship is a better one

Jake and Amy’s love story is great. But even better than that is Jake’s friendship with Gina, who he’s been friends with since they were kids. Or his friendship with Rosa, that began at the police academy. Or his strange friendship with Boyle, who is nearly obsessed with him. The friendships on this show are so real. They’re so real, so wonderfully honest. I love seeing men and women be friends without anything else. I have a lot of male friends, and I know that I sometimes get some backlash from that. People make assumptions when guys and girls are friends. I hate that. It’s good to see more men and women being friends on tv.

Showing real growth from challenges

In the show, several of the characters have gone through life-changing situations. Terry has three children, and it makes him more cautious. Jake is arrested and put in prison for nine months, and it makes him rethink his whole life. It makes him, in the end, a better detective.

It’s wonderful to see the characters change in this way.

If you’re an author, you could do worse than learn the lessons Brooklyn 99 has to teach.