Trying to get back into the saddle

I’m not going to bore you with everything that’s been going on the last 14 months or so. I’ve already blogged about some of it here. Let’s just say real life planned on me doing everything but writing. Now that life’s calming down some–read, letting me have a little (and very precious) time to myself–I’m starting to get serious once again about writing and publishing. That’s a big “WHOOP!”.

Now, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been getting work done. I sat down this morning and took stock of what happens to be sitting in my WIP stack. To say it is more than a bit intimidating is a serious understatement. In the last 14 or 15 months, I have gotten more than a dozen titles in some form of development. Some are drafted but need serious editing. One is written but something about it is still bothering me and I needed the right mind space to figure out what it is. I’m there now–I think–so it will hopefully be kicked out the door. Others have detailed outlines while some have some plot notes and character sketches but not much more. One new(ish) series is plotted out and the first book mostly written. In all, there is close to 250k words split between the projects.

So work has happened, just not finished work. That is going to change. So here’s a partial list of what’s on the plate right now, in no particular order:

• Warborn Legacy — military sf/space opera. Fully plotted and about half written.
• Designation: Frejya — space opera/alien invasion. Fully written and has gone through a round of edits. But this is the one I have an issue with and will be going back to it later this week or next to tear into it now that my brain is functioning like a writer’s brain again.
• Surtr’s Fury — urban fantasy/post-apocalyptic. Probably about 3/4 written, with parts already with alpha readers.
• War of the Gods — final book in the Sword of the Gods fantasy series. Outlined, partially written.
• Demonsbane: Dark Gods Rising — I admit it. I stole the title from another piece I’d been working on off and on and discarded a couple of years ago. This is outlined and has probably the first third or more written.

I also have three novels in the Nocturnal Lives universe plotted out, with one partially written. There is another novel in what can best be called a sub-set of the series that has been plotted and partially written. Added to that are the next books in the Tearing the Veil and Eerie Side of the Tracks universe.

That’s a–well, it’s a lot and it is scaring the crap out of me. It also excites me because it shows I have the ideas. I just need to get the brain back into the mode of finishing something. My focus to start is going to be on figuring out what is going on with Designation: Frejya and why it bothers me so much. Since that isn’t going to be something I can just sit down and do in a day or two, I’ll slot it for the evenings. I can load it onto my Kindle Scribe and take notes as I read. (BTW, I love the Scribe for this purpose. IMO, it is better for that than the reMarkable is. But the reMarkable is still my go to for straight note-taking. Shrug) That means I need to decide on what I’m going to focus the “writing” on. My first inclination is to work on Warborn. But that’s because I really like where the story, and the follow-ups, is going. But–and this is a big but–I realized last weekend there was an issue with the initial set-up. So I want to let it percolate for awhile in the back brain. I think I know what the issue is, but I want to get a better handle on it before I really sit down to finish the book.

I really think I’m going to finish up Surtr’s Fury. I need to do a heavy rewrite of a couple of middle chapters, make sure I have all the cookie crumbs laid out in the early chapters and then finish up the book. If I keep my butt in chair and keep focused, it shouldn’t take more than another 10 days to two weeks–assuming real life doesn’t have any more surprises for me.

Any way, I guess this is my way of saying “I’m back”. Just like a bad penny, I keep turning up. Anyway, here are a few cover mock-ups for your consideration.

There are more but are on the other computer right now. Anyway, time to get back to work.

Until later!