RoW80 Update: Reflections and Conclusions.

Round 2 of this year of A Round of Words in 80 Days has officially concluded, and there’s a little bit of time before the next one starts (July 7th! It’ll be here before we know it). A time to reflect and relax and rethink our goals and motivations. It’s also a time to look back and see exactly how much (or little, as the case may sometimes be) we accomplished in the past eighty days. I have to admit, when I look back on the last eighty days, I’m a little bit astounded by what I managed. It was a good round, a very, very good round.

So what did I accomplish?

Soulless. I finished the first book of The Slayer Saga pretty early in the round, typed it up, and got through my first edits. Then I sent it out to beta readers, and now I’ve got about a month and a half to put the finishing touches on it, get a cover fashioned up, and format it for an exciting release on August 15th. A good portion of Round 3 will likely be focused on marketing the crap out of it. Be prepared toward the end of July for me to do some shout-outs for people who would like to do interviews/reviews/run naked through the streets with a banner and a bullhorn…

Serpent in a Cage. Version 3.5 (and hopefully there will be no 4.0! I’ll accept a 3.75, though) has been completely typed up and transcribed! When Soulless is out of my hair for a little bit, I might just start picking at editing it, though it might also wait until I’ve secured Heartless to be in a good spot for publication in August of 2015. Then there’s making sure Fearless is reading for 2016. So SiaC might be put off a little longer, and I’m okay with that. It’s my baby. The time has to be right, and this is not the right time for it.

Short Stories. In the course of this round, I managed to get three new short stories finished and sent out, one of which is actually in the final stages of review, so keep your fingers crossed! Toward the end of the round, I hit a little bit of a wall, in that it seemed I couldn’t get any new stuff out. I’ve got a few ideas now, though, so hopefully that will change, but I’m not stressing out about it too much, as Soulless is my main priority. I also found a journal that accepts previously published works of longer, novelette-size fiction, so I’m brushing up “The Mutineers of Starvation” to add to the mix.

All in all, I feel pretty damn good about this round. The best part about it, though, is that it’s helped me jump right back into the exciting, turbulent waters of the self-publishing world and reconnect with a lot of good friends and mentors. That’s the thing I’ve always loved about RoW80, it’s just as much about the community as it is about the goals.

So, how was Round 2 for you? Any particularly awesome successes? Anything that still needs some work? What have you got planned for Round 3? I know that, outside of getting Soulless out and on its feet, most of my goals will focus on Heartless and more short stories. I’ve given myself a goal of a delicious smoothie from work whenever I sell a story. They’re super addictive, so I better get to selling…

Happy writing!