RoW80 Check-In: March 11th.

“It was at that moment, as if answering a call to destiny, that a woman’s voice interrupted. It was like a whip, snapping leather with a bite at the end. ‘Master Donovan! Where have you disappeared to? We haven’t got all day!’
She continued, in a bit of a whisper, though she didn’t lower it nearly enough. ‘I don’t know about this Dak. Doesn’t he know who we are? Does he realize that we have other things to do than sitting around his shop for a bleeding Maja’aelk?'”

Some of you may have noticed I decided to take a little bit of a break these last few days. Usually, I only try to miss a post a month, but, sometimes, a little bit of extra time is needed. With the break, I’m feeling a little bit of a recharge, which means that it was well chosen to do embark on the rest, and hopefully, now I can get things plodding along again. Just in time for another RoW80 update. It’s been a really off week, but let’s see what managed to get done, anyway.

Also, my cat is sitting by the computer and staring intently at the words showing up as I type them. I love my cats. ❤

Serpent in a Cage: No matter what goes on in my life, I’ve found I always find a bit of refuge in working on this book. It’s been a pleasure working on reconstructing this chapter; I always have a blast balancing the seriousness and the humor that having Gilferen as a narrator brings to the table. So this little bit is going along well and I’ve really got the fire in me to get this version of it finished and get it one step closer to being a reality. The need to do so is growing in me, including some consideration of self-publishing it. It was always my dream to have SiaC published traditionally, but self-publishing it is sound more appealing by the day. I’ve got a long way to go before I have to make that decision, though. Page count: 34/67.

Bowlful of Bunnies: Considering we’re almost halfway through March, I’m going to try to turn more of my attention onto getting some new material into BoB before I whittle down what stays, what goes, and get it prepped for beta readers in April. I’ve sort of reached the end of my stories that were all ready to go, but I don’t think there are nearly enough. Time to see what else I can come up with!

Teen Fantasy Anthology: Though I continue to fail to finish anything for Morgan Dragonwillow’s Teen Fantasy Anthology contest (of which there are only nine days left! Holy crap, time flies!), I have been learning a lot about myself and my writing because of it, and for that, I am grateful. I’ve given it some more thought and I’ve come to discover that time is the biggest issue for me in this challenge, not necessarily the subject matter or the style. I’ve started so many great stories; I’ve sat down and whittled at them for an hour here, an hour there, whenever I could find the time, and I still just couldn’t get them finished by the deadline. I just don’t think I’m much of a 24-hour story kind of person. I need maybe three days, I’d say, to really flesh something out and get it to where I’d want it to be (with the exception of the first four I submitted, which were fueled by pure adrenaline of something new). So I might not have been able to submit much to the contest, but I have a whole plethora of just-started stories that can be developed into something more (including two potential YA series!). While I may not have been too successful in the actual challenge, I’m finding success in other ways because of it, so I’m incredibly glad I’m doing it and that I still keep trying to get something done even though I know there’s no way I’ll finish it in time.

I am going to probably lay off a little bit for the last week or so of the challenge unless a prompt really strikes me. I need to shift my focus back to BoB now, because April will be here before I know it, and that’s going to be a very dedicated month if I want this thing finished and ready to go up in May.

The 100 Books Project: Reading, of course, will almost always be going well, because it’s the only thing I always seem to ensure I have time for. I’ve finished another book that will get a review sometime this week, if not tomorrow, and there’s at least one other one that’s nearly there, too. I’m still really far behind, but I feel I’m making some headway and covering some missed tracks. Books read: 9/100.

Other Novels: I haven’t had much time to work on the other novels I’ve been picking at this week. Most of the attention has been going into trying to finish those damn teen fantasy stories, and a few new novels might be sparked from some of those, but the current ones have just been waiting patiently. Once everything is in order for BoB, I’m pretty sure I’m going to focus on one of these to be the second book I want to publish this year, so they’re hovering in the background until their time comes.

Featured Story: Since it’s Sunday, a new Featured Story is up! This one is entitled “Spring Thaw,” and I wrote it when I was living in Traverse City, Michigan and spending an awful lot of time at the old State Hospital grounds. I find the ending entirely underwhelming, but let me know what you think! The feedback everyone has been providing has been incredibly valuable and useful and encouraging! Thank you so much for taking the time to read these little fledgling tales.

And speaking of thanks, I’ve also got to send one out to Wild Night In for following the blog! Good to have you aboard!