Phew, this is it. The last full day of work (10+ hours) before Christmas, and then only a half day on the 24th itself before I get two full… glorious… days to myself.
I literally can’t wait.
But that’s okay! This year has been particularly stressful and hard, just way, way more work than the last two years, but hopefully the bosses are happy and they appreciate the sacrifices and hard work I put into that job to pay for THIS job.
And in January, I get to go back to university! Woo! It’s going to be a bit surreal being surrounded by younglings just starting their university lives, but that’s okay… I’m really looking forward to leveling up my official English cred. The first couple courses sound pretty dull, but again, that’s okay! Foundational stuff.
And! I started the next novel (I think this will be officially Novel 6, assuming all goes well), which was a lovely little experience. I’ve started hashing out the characters and the universe, and I’m just trying to settle on a few big picture details before getting into the writing itself and seeing where this new band of misfits takes me.
Man, writing is such a rush. Best job ever.
Anyway! Happy holidays to all of you! Best wishes, and wish me luck for the next day and a half!
Closing Out the Year Strong!
Well, 2019 is heading into its final days. This year saw me sell 2 short stories (woo!), and finish and self-publish a novel.
Not bad, not bad.
Next year, however, is going to see me self-publishing FOUR novels, and hopefully three short stories (although that will depend pretty heavily on me ever managing to finish recording the one I already sold!). And I’m going back to school part-time, and I’m still working full-time.
Basically, it’s going to be a busy-ass year. But that’s okay! All part of the process.
Still, weird to think of this year as “relaxing” compared to next year. It certainly didn’t feel that way.
Anyways, I’ve already finished the second draft of the story that will be published in March (still need to send it off to my editor, but that will wait until January), and I’m going to be starting the first draft of the next one today! I love starting new stories… there’s always so much potential! So many places the story can take me!
A Relaxing Day of Relaxation
Yes, the title is intentional. It was quite a nice day! I haven’t had a Sunday off in a month, so that was nice… back to the grind tomorrow (and for longer hours as we approach the 24th), but that’s okay! Today I drove into Toronto to see a friend, we came back to Kitchener to have some delicious German holiday food (quite a lot of it, actually), and now I’m going to spend an hour editing before going off to hang out with other friends for the evening.
Also, I may be a little drunk. Just a little, though. But still.
I also spent a whole pile of money on Adepticon, a big gaming convention in Chicago in March, and I’m pretty excited about that! It will mean missing a little school (damn, I have to remember that going forward!), but a small price to pay, I think. And if I’m lucky, it’ll only be 1 relatively inconsequential day.
Gah, I’m going back to school in January! That absolutely hasn’t sunk in yet (I imagine it will as soon as I have to pay for it!).
Anyway! Editing! I’m going to go do that. Hope everyone had a lovely, lovely weekend!
And Upwards!
Phew, editing my earlier books is a lot of work! This one in particular has a lot of dialogue between the action sequences… not intrinsically a bad thing, of course, especially when paced well… but I was doing a lot of info-dumping that I now get to work into the story, rather than just saying it happened.
Ah, the glories of “Show, don’t tell”. Good advice, of course, but often easier said than done!
But that’s okay. The story is still moving along, and I think I’m going to really enjoy rewriting a few of the chapters totally from scratch, just to get the flow and action done right.
In other news, working at a game store to pay for my editing costs is always harder around this time of year. My hours ramp up, and sure it’s going to net me way more money for the next month, but the flip side is that all that money is going to go to Laurier University for my studies for the next several months/years (plus editing costs, of course!), so it’s kind of hard to be excited about it, you know?
Who knows, maybe I’ll buy myself something small and nice before tuition comes to vapourize all my money. Like a nice mug or something.
Hope everyone is having a great week!
Onwards!
Well, it’s out there.
As you probably know, Book 2 of the Tintian Series, “Tintian and the Mysterious Meteor”, went live late last week. It’s always a little surreal, pumping months into a novel, writing, editing, roping in art assets, converting stuff into HTML, and then… out. Available for people to read and enjoy.
Aside: somebody left a very positive review already! Which is amazing! It’s gratifying to know that people are enjoying my work!
But of course, there isn’t really time for celebration. Yes, I successfully published my third novel, but I’m still miles and miles away from being a full-time author. That will only come with volume of work, and that requires more writing. Which I love! I love writing, and I look forward to every day, every hour, every minute I get to sit in front of my computer and write (a little less so when it’s editing, but still!). So as Tintian and the Mysterious Meteor is out in the world, I wave to it fondly and turn to writing my next novel.
Which, in all honesty, I’ve already done… and am about halfway done editing it. With any luck (and a bit of hard work), it should be available in the Spring… this one is another standalone universe, a sci-fi space western that I’m pretty proud of (although admittedly, still unpolished). A little cowboy, a little crime-procedural, a little The Expanse meets Firefly…
I should get back to it.
To all of you out there who have purchased my book, thank you from the bottom of my heart! It means the world to me.
Tintian and the Mysterious Meteor Available NOW!
Quick post today: my newest novel has gone live! It is now available through Amazon stores worldwide!
For all of you out there who pick up a copy, my deepest thanks! I hope you enjoy it! It was a lot of fun to write, and I am grateful to everyone who helped me get another novel out!
Already working on the next novel to go out, planning on early Spring (let’s say April) to get that out to everyone. Goal is 4 novels for 2020… but for now I’m happy to get this one out to everyone!
You should be able to find it by searching “Tintian and the Mysterious Meteor” on your local Amazon, but just to make your life a little easier:
Amazon US
Amazon Canada
Amazon Australia
Finishing Edits Today!
At least that’s the plan. Halfway (more!) through the month, and I have to finish these sooner than later or they’re just never going to get done.
Thankfully, no big plans today other than to edit, so that should be fine. I can usually get a tonne of work done when I just put my head down and do it without too many interruptions.
Plus, I have coffee. That usually helps a lot.
Anyway! Nothing else really exciting. No word yet from the artist, and if they don’t get back to me in a few days I’m going to have to go with a fallback plan, but that’s okay either way. It will work out! All part of the progress.
Urgh. Part of the PROCESS. Yeah, that’s the kinda day I’ve been having.
Hope everyone is having a great winter! The cold weather has hit southern Ontario pretty hard, but that’s okay… I love writing on cold days like this.
Still Editing, And Other Truisms.
Well, I’m on Chapter 17, which is good… over halfway done. No word from the cover artist yet (they said they would work on a couple concept sketches, and we’d go from there, but they’re still well within timeline), but that’s okay. Plenty of time still, considering my editing pace!
Today I have a trip to talk to an academic advisor about my education goals, which I’m looking forward to, and other than that, just a lot of writing/editing work that needs doing. I think I can probably get the novel finish today… or next week at the latest (down to only 1 day off a week at this stage due to working at a game store to pay for my writing).
Other than that, got a rejection from… February. Wow. I forgot it had been that long. Well, whatever. This isn’t the story, just a different agent I approached at the suggestion of an author I know, so fingers are still crossed for that novel, but it’s been a long time for that one too. Such is the way it goes, I suppose? Either way, no hard feelings, and hopefully I can find an agent (or my books can find their audience, or both!) before too much longer. We shall see, we shall see.
It’s very snowy outside today, so I hope everyone out there is enjoying the weather more than I am!
9 Chapters Done, 21 To Go!
Ah, editing. Truly, the… something unpleasant in the side of my pleasant…ness.
I’ll fix that in editing.
Anyway! Got the professional edits back, and I’m about a third of the way through incorporating them into the book itself. My editor (who is incredible, and extremely wise) always recommends a second round of edits, and while I wish I had the time and money to do that… it’s just never going to happen. As it stands, each novel costs me about $1,500 in editing (plus cover art, plus advertising, plus a few assorted other things), and that’s already way, way out of my budget.
I mean, I want a polished product, but I also need to eat. So one round of paid-for edits is all this novel is going to get. Maybe someday I will have the luxury to do multiple rounds of professional editing… but it is not this day.
Anyway! Always a bit soul-scouring to see how a professional tweaks your work, so it’s been hard, but I’m happy to be doing it. Means that the novel is almost done and ready to head off into the wild!
Speaking of which, I reached an agreement with the artist, and I’m cautiously optimistic about their work. We’ll see what comes out the other side. Fingers crossed!
Back to the editing! Hope everyone out there is having a great start to the winter season!
And the Edits Begin...
Well, today’s the day. Going to jump into the edits, hopefully get the majority of them done. We’ll see how that goes… have a trip down to visit my mother for her birthday (happy birthday, mom!), but other than that…
Argh, and switching the car’s tires for the winter. Gotta get that done too. So, tires, then mom’s birthday, then edits.
I can’t say I’m looking forward to it, but it’s gotta get done. And, added bonus, it’ll be out soon! That’s nice.
Still have to track down cover art, but that should be okay. Usually, that’s pretty straight forward. And then convert it to HTML, and then blah blah blah book.
But first, the tires. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!
Small Change in Plans!
So just a quick heads up: the new novel is going to go out in November! I received the edits on October 31st, and while I am very talented… I’m not that talented!
That stated, should be out sooner rather than later, and hopefully in the next few weeks! Just a few more hoops to jump through, and we’ll be good to go! Thank you everyone for your patience!
Ah, Bureaucracy! What a Joy...
Ah, I had honestly forgotten what a “joy” dealing with Universities can be. Oh well… I’m in, and that was the tough part. Everything from here on out is just jumping through the right hoops at the right time.
It looks like I’ll be taking at least 1, possibly 2 courses this winter, which is about the pace I expect to keep up for the next few years until I’m done with all mah schoolin’s. The big issue seems to be getting into the required courses to get an English degree (which I would like, thank you very much), but that’s okay. I’m willing to ask questions and pester the appropriate people to make sure it happens.
In other news, no word from my editor regarding the most recent novel, so hitting the end of the month might be a bit trickier than I had hoped. Might still happen (one long, long night of editing would do it), but probably not… but maybe. But probably not.
But that’s okay! Early November is still pretty good, and then the next two or three books should be right on the heels of this one.
Hope everyone is having a great end of the month, and happy Halloween for those of you who are in Halloween-celebrating areas! Yay free/inexpensive candy!
Other, Sorta Related News!
Well, it’s official… as of right now, I am returning to university in January 2020!
I’ll be attending Laurier (one of two universities in Waterloo, just north of me) for English. I’m not 100% on what exactly I’ll be taking in January just yet (I mean… aside from the obvious “English Courses”, d’uh), but I intend to spend some time this week and next studying what I should be studying (ha) and working towards figuring out a timetable that works with my writing, my other job, and my life goals.
Still! Part-time studies are a nice step towards some lovely formal education, and Laurier has several courses on science fiction and speculative fiction writing (which I probably won’t get to take immediately because pre-reqs), so I’m really looking forward to working on getting into those! Plus, having an environment where I must produce specific work, even if it’s outside my specific genre, is going to be exciting!
So, there ya go. Exciting news in my world!
Less exciting but still noteworthy: I’ve been doing a lot of research and work on Marketing for my future books. I’m looking forward to start applying some simple, but hopefully effective, marketing and advertising for the new book coming out in a few weeks! And I’m definitely going to ramp up my novel output (goal previously was 1 novel a year, new goal is 4 novels a year). It’s going to be a lot of work, and I’m going to have to stop relying on the Writers Group to go through each and every chapter for feedback because I just won’t have time for that, but that’s okay! They can still help me polish and improve my work (just like I hope I do the same for them!), just not as thoroughly as they’re helping these days!
Okay, so there we go. Lots of news! Much of it exciting. Most of it terrifying. Yay!
Tintian and the Mysterious Meteor, Coming Oct 2019!
Well, it’s official. The novel I will be releasing before the end of the month is titled “Tintian and the Mysterious Meteor”.
This one is an homage to “Tintin and the Shooting Star”, another of my favourites from Herge’s series. Mine, of course, has significantly more science fiction (and, to be completely frank, significantly more science). I’m really happy with how the story turned out… at its core it’s a race story between two starships trying to reach a mysterious object happily joyriding through the solar system. But they’re racing each other and the clock, since before long the object will be beyond the reach of human exploration. Plus, the sneaky Venus Bank that’s funding the competitors will stop at nothing to capture it themselves… does plucky reporter Leigh Tintian, her best friend Agnes Millesabord, her robot companion SN0-EE, and the crew of the Prosperous have the guts, intelligence, and luck to reach their destination first?
Only one way to find out!
Anyway, now that it’s official, time to start doing all the secondary work that comes along with this stuff. Primarily, I’m going to see if I can track down some cover art (I have a lead on a cover artist that might be willing to do a custom cover, which is always preferable, so we’ll see how that goes!), write the jacket blurb, and get ready to covert everything into HTML (I have a friend who does that sort of work for a living, and I’m really curious if he can give me some feedback).
Oh! Oh! And I sent off one of my audio stories to a different friend (I am blessed with an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the quality of humans in my life) to see if he can give useful feedback for how to write better scripts. I figure since I’m doing it anyway, might as well do it better!
Okay, that’s it for today. My editor has had the novel now for almost a week, so she should be getting it back to me soon (she does good, fast work, and is going on vacation for the end of the month so I suspect I’ll have it back well before then). Hope everyone is having as good a day (or better!) as I am!
Off to the Editor
So Novel 4 is officially off at the editor’s. She will work on it for the next week or two and then send it back, at which point “all” I have to do is:
1. Incorporate changes and final edits,
2. Convert it to HTML,
3. Find appropriate cover art,
4. Upload it to Amazon/Kobo.
A significant amount of work still, but we’re on pace to getting it live and uploaded by the end of the month. And that’s something… this will be my third novel available through Amazon/Kobo (but you all knew that already), although it is technically the 4th novel I’ve finished because Novel 3 is still under consideration with the people I’d like to be my agents.
Regardless, it’s exciting! It gives me a little bit of breathing room before pushing forward towards the next novel, which is also nice, and it means I should be able to keep up a 2-novels-per-year pace for the next few years at the very least. Which is also something.
Novel 5 is coming along slowly, but it’s coming along. The big stumbling block there isn’t diving into Novel 6 out of excitement to start something new, and to stick to this one until it’s done. Shouldn’t take too much longer, but I don’t think I’ll have the main draft done until January. At which point we start the 3rd round of edits, and then send IT off to my editor. Woo.
Anyway! Going to enjoy a few hours of hiking, and then back to the editing! Hope everyone is having a great week!
Writing Retreat!
Well, it’s that time of year again. In a few short weeks I will be heading into the chaos that is the holiday season.
What this means is that I’ll have absolutely, positively no time as my “days off” become a distant memory. But what it also means is that I have a few days (today until Wednesday) to do nothing besides write.
I mean, I will be doing a FEW things. Maybe a bike ride. Maybe a hike. Some shopping, a little cooking. But mostly, just hanging out in a church that’s been converted into a little B&B in the middle of nowhere Ontario and writing.
I have a bucket of edits that need to get finished for Novel 5, and then it gets sent off to my editor on Monday or Tuesday. Then, another bucket of edits to Novel 6 (that’s going to be a tonne more work, it’s still very preliminary) before hopefully sending it off to my editor sometime early December/January.
All this will lead into publishing another novel on ye olde Amazon by the end of the month (woo!), and then another one in February or March of 2020. I figure if I can keep up the twice-per-year pace for a while, I’ll get to the golden “Full-Time Writer” status sooner… and that would be awful nice.
Oh, and I teased some “good news” a few posts ago… and I’m going to tease it a bit more! I can confirm it is definitely good news, and it’s pretty dang exciting for me… but no more than that at this point. Hopefully more in a week or so!
Hope everyone is having a great week, and happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian readers!
October New Novel!
Well, I’m committing to it here first (albeit by minutes before my Patreon supporters find out). I’m going to do everything in my power to make a new novel available by the end of the month.
October tends to be pretty traditionally the time of year that I get a new novel out. It’s comfortably before the holidays so I’m not completely insane at my other job yet, but it’s also the last opportunity to get things done before things become completely insane.
The only hiccup this year is that I have two novels waiting on the sidelines to go! One of which is under consideration by the folks I’m still hoping will be my agent, but the other of needs a final editorial pass before it’s ready. But that depends on my editor, of course… I think she’ll have time, but who knows?
Anyway! Either way, new novel out soon! Novel 3 available to the public! Whee!
In other news, I’m ready to record the audio on the short story I sold, so that’s also going to make this month busy. But busy is a good problem to have!
Phew! Lotsa stuff to get done… I should get to it! Hope everyone is having a very good start to the autumn!
Back in Canada!
Well, I have successfully returned from my trip overseas. If I had to sum up the trip to Japan, I would say it was incredible.
Now that I’m home, time to get the nose back on ye olde grindstone. I have plans to release Novel 3 by the end of October, assuming everything goes okay. The process isn’t difficult, just time intensive, but hopefully with the trip to Japan out of the way I will have the opportunity to make sure it happens. That will make this the 3rd year in a row with a novel release, which is a good pace to start with I think.
Which novel is getting released? Well, that would be telling.
Regardless! I’m excited. Nice to have clear goals.
In other news, I am finishing up the last edits to the short story before I start audio recording (also needing to get that done in October). I’m really pleased with how it’s turning out… heavy on the funny, with a good dose of action. Just the way I likes ‘em.
Anyway! Nice to be back home, and although I will miss Japan/Tokyo, it was an amazing experience.
Last Full Day in Japan
Well, this is it. Tomorrow I fly back to Canada to resume the life I have there.
It’s a bitter-sweet kinda thing. I miss home, and the familiarity of routine, and my friends and family of course. But I am going to miss a lot about Japan as well. There’s so much potential energy here, and I harnessed so little of it.
Tokyo is lovely. Kyoto, for the day I spent there, was lovely. The moments blitzing through the countryside, either by train, cable car, or on the few hikes, were really lovely. I’ve had some truly awful coffee, but some quite good coffee as well. I had some food I wasn’t crazy about, and a lot that was spectacular. Bought some small gifts (mostly food), and picked up a couple little things for myself.
Today I’m going to the Ghibli Museum, and that’s about it. Some wandering around to do a little shopping, and a few more meals. A very low key kinda… unpacking… I guess. Just trying to absorb the ambient “Japan” out of the air, carry it with me for as long as I can.
Anyway, in writing news, still waiting for final edits to the short story, and I did a bit of work on Novel 5 in the interim, so that’s at least moving along.
A Quick Trip to Kyoto...
Today (and a bit of yesterday) were spent in Kyoto. I’ll be honest, I didn’t do a lot or see a lot… I went to a couple shrines, I saw an ancient castle, I petted some cats, and I ate a lot of convenience store sandwiches.
Like… a LOT of convenience store sammiches. The Japanese convenience store sandwich is a thing of beauty. Their onigiri (balls of seasoned rice wrapped in seaweed and usually with a flavourful “core”) are great and inexpensive, but their sandwiches… I am absolutely, 100% going to miss those.
In other, WRITING-related news, I managed to finish the first draft of the next short story I sold! Huzzah! I’ve sent it to the Writers Group with the hopes they can review and give me some feedback… I can tell it’s pretty good, but it’s missing (or rushing, or not spending enough time on) something. Still, it was a bit like pulling teeth to get it this far. But now that the first draft is done, I’ve already started blocking out the audio version in my head. I have a month to finish the written portion and record the audio, so basically as soon as I’m wheels-down in Toronto I’ve got to start organizing that.
Sadly, this means I have to return to editing… Novel 5 has some pretty serious edits needed, but it’s an interesting process, considering I wrote the first draft so very long ago. There is the temptation to just scrap the whole thing and start from scratch, but that’s mostly the voice in my head that hates editing with the passion of a thousand suns.
Right! The Shinkansen (bullet train) I’m on is about halfway to Tokyo, so I’m going to read for a little bit and then get back to editing!