I wish I had something pithy or newsworthy to share this month. So far it is “life” as usual, minus the gaming stuff due to plague. Three people have bought my new book* so far. What is wrong with them? Of course, my one blog reader is already pestering me for a May entry, so this is what you get.
Although I do not have anything newsworthy to report, my writer friend Angie Titus just published her second book, Bloodstained Rose*. While her first book (Down in Flames*, you may recall) was a romantic comedy, this one is a supernatural mystery with a smidgen of romance thrown in for good measure. I am five chapters in and really enjoying it. Unlike the first, I did not have the pleasure of reading the warts-and-all version of this one, so every word so far has been brand spanking new to me. Well, in relation to the other words, not that I am unfamiliar with the English language. I mean, come on. I’m not new here.
Hey! You in the back! I heard that. No cookies for you.
Anyway, my point is you should check out her books. They’re a lot of fun.
WRITING IN PUBLIC
In the last month and a half I wrote a 2,200-word short story. I have not written short fiction in more than 15 years. The last short-ish thing I wrote was a novella in 2004. It was a test-run for my first NaNoWriMo. (25,000 words in a month. I figured if I couldn’t do that, there was no point in trying to write 50,000.) Prior to that… I may have written some short-ish things in the late 1990s? By then, though, even my “short” stories kept getting longer and longer.
This was definitely a departure.
Now, however, I am in the limbo phase, where I am not sure what to write next. Do I start a new first draft of something? Do I go back to my “unfinished” pile and attempt to improve my completion rate? Do I revise an existing something for publication? Do I fling my hands into the air, scream “I GIVE UP” and spend the rest of my days lying melodramatically across a sofa?
Probably not that last one.
It’s not that I don’t have ideas. I have a few of them. The problem is deciding which one will hold my attention long enough to finish it. Heinlein’s second rule: “You must finish what you write.” I break that rule so hard. Of course, I also break his third rule when I get to publishing mode. I don’t “rewrite” my stuff, but I do revise it.
I may try Dean Wesley Smith’s method one day, cycling back to “fix” things as I go.
But to do that, I need to figure out what I want to write.
WRAPPING UP
There is no GAMING THINGS segment this time. There is nothing to report on that front at all. Lots of things I want to play, and some Kickstarter things are coming in… but no venues will let me play with my friends. That may change in the next couple of months. It depends on the plague situation.
On that note, I hope you are happy, healthy, keeping yourself distant, and staying as safe as you possibly can through this pandemic thing.
I will talk to you again in June.
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