It’s Sunday, it’s 34 days into my self-isolation, and I’m working on the novel I’d like to publish next week.
Got the cover (you can see it on the front page of this here blog), finished one of the two completely new chapters the book is going to need (which is nice, pushing it back over 50,000 words again), and going to start the arduous process of converting the document into ebook format early next week.
Just plugging away. I love writing more than I like the process required to get books self-published, but it’s part of the process. And that’s okay! Looking forward to getting it done and then back to work on the next batch of novels!
Oh, and I submitted a short story to a market. Fingers crossed. Still hopeful to get another one submitted in a few weeks.
Anyway! Work! What are these “weekends” people used to talk about? ^_^
Isolation, Day 31: One Month!
It has now been a full month of self-isolation. I have written about 36k words (not including short stories, blog posts, or course work), I’m submitting a short story to market this week as well as having another novel available on Amazon in the next few days.
All in all? It’s been a pretty good month! To say nothing about walking more, exercising more, eating better, eating out less (that’s a little sad, really, but still healthier!)… if I could just see my friends, this would be my best life, no question.
As it is, I know this is going to end someday. Not soon, probably not for at least another month or three, but it will end. And that’s a little terrifying and sad, but all I can do is focus on today. Writing as much as I can, being kind to myself about my pace (about 1k words a day is okay! It’s not as fast as I want, but it’s okay!), and just keeping my eyes on the goal of eventually, EVENTUALLY becoming a full-time writer.
Just gotta do the reps, ya know? You know.
Anyway! Happy with how the podcast yesterday turned out, happy with how the editing for the final draft of Marshal Morcos is coming along! All the small things coming together!
Hope everyone is staying safe!
Isolation, Day 30: The Black Cacophony, Episode 2
Back in November (gosh, six months ago!) I finished up a short story and sold it to the White Noise podcast, a lovely group of guys that run a weekly “Infinity the Game” podcast.
The basics of the story is a group of heroes wandering around the galaxy beating up bad guys, with a loose connection that each of the hosts is also a member of the crew of the starship “The Black Cacophony” (get it? “White Noise”, “Black Cacophony”… I thought it was quite clever myself). Anyway, the first episode was pretty well received, and the second episode went live yesterday! Woo!
You can give it a listen through this link if you’d like:
https://benandmarty.libsyn.com/the-black-cacophony-episode-2
I’m really proud of how it turned out (and it was a TONNE of work to get all the voice actors together, and then Jenna, the person responsible for all the sound engineering, did a fantastic job with cleaning up everything and getting it all to work together!). You don’t really need to listen to the first episode, but it does provide some cool context for what’s going on, even if the sound engineering (which I did) isn’t nearly as good as what Jenna did.
Anyway! Hope you all enjoy it, and are staying safe and healthy!
Isolation, Day 28: Edits Received!
My editor sent back the edits for the next novel, and that’s very exciting news! I’ll be shopping for a cover, incorporating the changes, and then putting it up for sale, hopefully all this week!
Editing is always a bit of a slog, just because of the amount of work and the care/time that has to go into not repeating sections or removing important clarity, and the quick notes from my editor mentioned maybe adding a few sections (good advice from what I can tell), so these won’t be as quick as my usual edits, but that’s okay as well because, hey, turns out I have a bunch of time to do them! Woo!
Anyway, excited to publish my first novel of 2020 very soon, and then get back to writing my 2nd novel for 2020 immediately after that!
I’m all the excites! T’is a good day to edit!
Isolation, Day 26: A Day Off!
So this will be the first day in the last 26 days that I’m taking completely off. No writing obligations (I almost didn’t write this post, but then these are never “work” just a thing I happen to do for work… work-adjacent, I suppose?), and just relaxing and painting and napping and eating.
Basically, a day off.
It’s weird to think that while I haven’t had my secondary job (the one that consumes most of my time and currently pays most of my bills) in a month, I have also been working constantly since then. Don’t get me wrong, that’s resulted in me having about 25-30% of a novel finished already, but by the same token, it’s an exhausting time in general and working constantly isn’t helping with that.
I may even start building some LEGO I have from when my isolation started. Mmmm… maybe not, maybe, I don’t know right now. We will see! But that’s a nice decision to have to make.
I’ll get back to writing the novel on Monday. I’m going to see how far I can get in “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey” tomorrow. I think I’m about 40% of the way through that one, and it’s been neat exploring ancient Greece.
Hope everyone out there is having a relaxing weekend, staying away from large meetings, and being healthy and happy!
Isolation Day 23: Slowing Down
Well, my writing has slowed down a little, and that’s frustrating. Again, trying to be kind with myself over this, since these aren’t exactly ideal conditions, but still frustrated.
Ah, the human condition. Truly a marvel.
But, with that stated, I am still progressing! Which is important. And still finding time to do stuff I enjoy (writing, painting), exercise (walking, mostly, at this point), and doing my best to maintain healthy emotional and physical habits (no more junk food, for example, and I’ve certainly eaten way less take-out than I have been in the last year).
Which is all good… but still, I’m frustrated by the speed at which I write.
Oh well! It’ll get done when it’s done.
In more optimistic news, I have continued onto the second round for a grant for the writers group I organize and run, and that’s great news! It’s actually better news for the people near me than it is specifically for me: the funds, if I manage to land them, are all earmarked for people who I respect and think could use the extra scratch: $500 for an artist friend of mine to design some promotional material, $500 for a cafe owner friend to secure space and beverages, and the last $500 for other members of the group to access editing and submission help. It would be great to have the money just to help out everyone else!
But I’m still not assured to get it, so I’m holding off being too excited about it just yet. But it’s nice to hear that I passed the first stage! Go team!
Right. Time to get back to writing.
Isolation, Day 22: Three Weeks! Huzzah!
Well, technically 3 weeks as of yesterday, but close enough. How are things going at Casa Questus?
Really well! Writing has slowed down a bit, but that’s to be expected. Still on pace to finish the novel in a few weeks, at most, so that’s good news. Still eating really well (I’m thinking about making pizza dough from scratch… I know a lot of people out there are going goo-goo for sourdoughs, but honestly I’ve been there, done that, and I’m not a fan. Too finicky. I’ll stick with my baking yeast, thank you!), going on daily hour-long walks to listen to podcasts (that’s been a lovely habit to get back into… although at this rate I’m going to have to subscribe to more podcasts to keep me in new content!), and still contributing to podcasts and short story competitions and all that jazz.
I miss my friends, of course, and I miss petting random cats and dogs I encounter on my walks, but those are small prices to pay for the amount of work I’m getting done and the general sense of accomplishment I have.
Which is good, because all signs are pointing towards at least another few months of this. Which I know is hard for a lot of people out there. But not here, not yet!
I’m going to go on my walk while it’s still early and there aren’t too many people out. Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Isolation, Day 20: Are Weekends Even A Thing Any More?
With so many days blending together, I have to wonder if weekends still have special significance.
My usual day is wake up, go for a walk, write, eat, write, and then sleep… my weekends are basically the same, all things considered.
But they still kinda feel special, I suppose? Like, I tally up how many words I’ve written over the week on Sunday. And Mondays are still my busiest day, for whatever reason… ah well, I guess it’s all good.
Writing was slow this week. Only about 10k words for the full seven days, which is significantly less than I’d like, but I’m trying to be kind with myself. It is a very stressful time, and my output is going to slow as a result. Regardless, I think I’m pretty happy with how the new Tintian book is coming along, so that’s nice! Story is moving at a healthy pace (maybe a bit too quickly, honestly, but I can always go back and add detail later if I feel it needs it). I’m still undecided about whether I’ll fold both of the original stories (The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure) into a single novel or not. I guess I’ll make that decision based on the final word count… I’d really like the finished novel in the 60-70k word range.
Anyway! Progress progresses. Things are going well, and I look forward to celebrating 3 full weeks of isolation tomorrow! Not sure what I’m going to do to celebrate… probably nap? I think I haven’t had a nap this entire time yet. I should do that.
Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!
Isolation, Day 17: Successful Excursion was Successful!
Yesterday I spent 2 hours outside of my home getting groceries. It was a somewhat surreal experience, but at the same time it wasn’t uncomfortable or weird. Just… didn’t feel “real”.
I managed to get enough groceries for a month, if not significantly more. Not enough fresh veg to last that long, obviously, but lots of frozen veg and canned goods, if needs be.
The nice thing is knowing I have these supplies, and going through my existing emergency food supplies and making sure everything is up-to-date and tasty. I plan to eat a lot of chickpea curry, for example, because I have a tonne of coconut milk and chickpeas… but this is great! Because I love chickpea curry.
Anyway, neither here nor there. Just an interesting life blip, I suppose.
My editor contacted me yesterday, let me know she was still working on Novel 4 at a rate of about 2 chapters a day. It’s not a long book, but I honestly can’t remember how many chapters I put in there, so… it’ll be done when it’s done. And then I’ll finish the final edits, find a cover for it, and put it up for sale! It always feels a bit weird to put new work out in the world… satisfying, but also terrifying. I hope people like it. It’s a departure from my usual style. More “Western” than “Space” in this case, but obviously a healthy dose of both.
Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!
Isolation, Day 15: A Little Big Brother History Revision
The eagle-eyed and attentive among you may have noticed that the “Coming Soon!” page has changed from March 2020 to April 2020.
I mean, today is March 31st, so I waited until the last possible moment, but such is life. The COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in many things being pushed back, and now my next novel is one of them. Oh well!
This isn’t really a setback, as I think I mentioned before. The goal is to get 4 novels written and published this year, and as long as the next one is ready to go by June, I’m still on track. And it does look like the next novel will be ready to go by June. I’ll give my editor more than 3 weeks to prepare for it, and we should be good.
Still, a little sad to push that date back… but it’s for the best! It will result in everyone getting an amazing novel to read in a week or two.
Other than that, finished my last assignment for school for the semester (woo), and am going to spend today writing another 5k words for Novel 6 before switching over to edit a short story for submission.
It’s a good day to write. Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!
Isolation, Day 14: Two Weeks! Woo!
Well, if I had been traveling internationally, I would now be in the clear. This also probably means that I didn’t get sick while at work or from any of my colleagues at the game store I work at to pay for my bills, and that’s a comforting thought.
But for us, this is probably… oh, a quarter of the way through isolation? We’re doing our best, and aside from a couple trips outside for walks, my partner and I have done a remarkably good job staying indoors over the last two weeks.
Tomorrow I’ll be heading out to forage for another two weeks (or three, maybe four) of food. We still have plenty, but I’d rather stock up to avoid emergency rations if we can avoid it. Plus… fresh veggies. I miss those.
But! That’s okay! Writing work is continuing at a breakneck pace (I’ve been averaging 3,150 words a day thus far, and I’m going to try and crank it up to 5k words a day from today on out). I have my final school assignment of the semester due this week, so I’m going to try and finish that today as well, and then guitar lessons after all that. Oh, and some editing for a podcast, and cooking…
Mondays are always busy. So nice that some things haven’t changed, I guess?
But mostly I’m grateful. Grateful for the opportunity to keep writing, grateful that my stories are getting finished, grateful that I have work I can do to keep me busy and entertained.
Grateful for all of you who read my work, who support me on Patreon or by checking out my silly, ramble-y posts.
Well, back at it! 30 more minutes of audio editing before I can get back to writing, but the day is yet young! Hope everyone is staying safe and happy out there!
Isolation, Day 11: Delays Are Inevitable
Well, my editor politely messaged me to ask if she could have more time to work with the new novel. No worries on my part, since she is suddenly having to deal with two kids and a husband sharing her working space. A little extra time to publish won’t hurt me, and it will help her.
Means all you good folk will probably have to wait an extra week or so for the book to be available on Amazon, but I hope that’s okay! And it gives me more time to work on my current novels so that one of them is ready to go by the summer (I’m thinking it’ll be the next Tintian novel, since that one is currently flowing better). 10k words on the first draft done in the last 3 days, which is a pace I really hope I can keep up or improve in the short term! 30 days for a novel sounds quick, but since this is a lovely, extended period of time where I don’t have other pressing concerns, I really need to make the most of it!
In other news, happy with that progress, and getting some feedback on a silly little story I wrote for the podcast I contribute to. Still planning on doing 2 or 3 more quick little stories for them, but the priority right now are the novels. If i want to get 4 done this year (and I do!), I really need to keep the foot on the pedal.
Anyhoo! Nothing else really major going on in my life at the moment. I think tonight we’re going to watch some Shaun the Sheep episodes, which will be nice! And I think I may make perogies for dinner. It’s a hard-knocked life, I tells ya.
Isolation, Day 10: Online Learning
Well, all my courses have moved to online-only, which, under the circumstances, is perfectly reasonable.
And super annoying. I don’t learn well through online means. I don’t know why, but I really struggle with just being presented the information visually. Plus, I really love engaging with professors and TAs (and occasionally fellow classmates), and losing all that… sucks.
Flip side? I’ve written so much in the last 10 days… not enough, but way, way more than I expected to at the beginning of March. So we’re going to call that a win!
Still, these are definitely “interesting times” in the Chinese-curse sense (“May you live in Interesting Times”). A lot of people scared, concerned, financially threatened… I still feel guilty for how much work I’m getting done.
Now, if I could just sell the books I’ve written (or am writing!), things would be great! But I’m blessed, and so I’m not going to complain about a little hardship.
Tomorrow I may venture out early-ish to pick up a few more weeks of groceries. Did really well with the last run, should be able to get another few weeks worth of food without too many issues. Still have lots of staples, but running low on veg (aside from frozen spinach, which I have a metric tonne of) and fruit (a few bananas, but otherwise pretty low). Maybe pick up potatoes and bread… no, axe that, I’m going to get back into baking bread, so I don’t need to pick that up. Anyway, it’s a weird and wonderful time to be alive, despite the stress. Hope everyone is staying safe!
Isolation, Day 7: Who Needs a Plan Anyway?
So I think I’ve mentioned in the past that I’m not, by default, much of a “planner” when it comes to writing. My general style is very much “pantsing” as opposed to “planning”… I usually just have a vague idea of where I want a story to start, and where I want it to end, and then I let my characters direct me in how the story will evolve as we go along.
Downside to this style of writing is that it usually takes five times as long to edit a “pantsing” novel than a “planning” novel. A lot of the stuff that occurs later has to be artificially injected into the story earlier, and then everything cleaned up to maintain a coherent, consistent story at that point.
But the upside is the sense of wonder and flow tends to be stronger. A lot of the time the surprises to the audience occur because they were also surprises to me! And that’s pretty cool.
That stated, I have spent the last three days on the outline of the next novel I’m going to write (“Tintian and the Chimera’s Secret”). Which is a very long time for me to work on an outline. But since this is a mystery (sorta) adventure (sorta) sci-fi (definitely) novel, that underlying effort should pay off in making sure that everything makes sense and hangs together cleanly when I’m done. And besides, I certainly have the time to make sure the outline is correct!
But today, I start actually writing. The outline is nice and all, but at the end of the day, it’s the writing part that really matters, and today I get to start that. Looking forward to it!
In other news, isolation is still amazing and I’m loving it. Hope everyone out there is staying healthy and safe!
Isolation, Day 6: Whee!
Well, I’ll be honest, the plan for today initially was to take it easy and step away from the computer for the day. However, I didn’t do as much as I wanted yesterday, so I’m going to try and get more work done today to compensate. I think I’m going to set myself a goal of 3k words for today… not as rigorous as my usual weekday writings have been during the isolation, but about 3k words more than I expected to write for today.
We’ll call that a win.
It’s been interesting to read people’s suggestions about how to deal with isolation. The two best I’ve seen was a navy submarine crewman, and Chris Hadfield (Canadian astronaut). Both of them are rooted in schedules, basically making sure you set time for yourself to do very specific things (eat well on some days, eat less on others, exercise every day, schedule in free time and privacy but also schedule work periods and rotations, etc…). Useful advice! I haven’t been “suffering” under the Isolation I’m in, but by the same token I don’t know how long this will last and treating it as if it will last forever is probably unwise. Making sure I have some normalcy in my schedule should make the eventual conversion back to “the real world” easier.
How crazy is that: everyone else is worrying about when they can go back to their “real” life, and I’m sitting here dreading having to stop writing. Selfish of me, I know. But this is where we are.
Hope everyone out there is doing okay, keeping healthy and watching out for each other!
Isolation, Day 4: How Different Is Different-Enough?
One of the things I keep coming back to with my homage of Herge’s work is just how different is different enough?
I mean, my protagonist is a young female ex-Spec-Ops living hundreds of years into our future in a post-scarcity society, so that’s pretty different from Tintin (although money never seemed to be an issue for him). Millesabord, Tintian’s stalwart companion hews closer to Haddock, despite the gender-swap… swearing, drinking, violent, but capable with a wicked sense of humour.
The general broad-brushstroke storylines have been similar, if not the same, with science substituting in for a lot of the pseudo-mysticism that Herge often relied on.
The reason I ask is that the newest novel seems to be following the Tintin equivalent closer than usual. I think to some extent that’s because “The Secret of the Unicorn” was a pretty complex story, whereas I had to inject complexity into the older stories.
Anyway, just idle thoughts for now. I’m happy with how the novel is shaping up thus far, and hopeful that I can have the first draft done by next week (ambitious, I know, but why not?).
Other than that, might watch the “Shaun the Sheep” movie tonight. Just ‘cause.
Isolation, Day 3: New Novel Work!
Well, at least I won’t have to worry about coming up with new titles for my blog posts for a while!
Everything is still great, as much as I am lightly ashamed to admit. I have been presented with an opportunity to do the work I love (and, if I may say so, that I do very well) by the universe, and by Jove I’m going to do that.
I switched tracks from doing Novel 5 for a little bit to pivot into the next Tintian novel (I’m about due for one), that I am currently calling “Tintian and the Chimera’s Secret”! This one will be based loosely on “The Secret of the Unicorn”, and possibly fold in “Red Rackham’s Treasure” as well, although we’ll have to wait to see about that. I’ve written out the start of the story’s notes, beginning to lay down the foundations for how the story will parallel the original, and how it will be different.
One big difference is going to be the concept of “treasure”. Modern “treasure” is money, plain and simple… sure, there are the usual “Maybe the treasure was the friends we made along the way” tropes, as old as time itself, but really, modern treasure is monetary power. The Tintian universe is post-scarcity, post-money… it uses credit for luxuries and calories over one’s allocation, but everyone is on more-or-less the same playing field when it comes to what they can buy. One of Tintian’s eventual enemies is going to be a business-and-media mogul who uses influence and military power as currency, somebody who believes very firmly that hierarchy is necessary for society and is pushing to reinstate it despite the harm it will cause. But what does “Rackham’s Treasure” really mean? Will it be military power? An old ship, maybe loaded down with banned weaponry? Biological technology that allows people to never age? Instant knowledge programs?
I’ll have to think about it. But it will be fun!
Anyway! Things are great here, and I hope everyone out there is staying safe, checking in with your friends and family, and doing well!
Isolation, Day 1
Well, I made the call and let my boss at the game store know that I wouldn’t be coming in until the situation is under control. I hope he understands (I suspect he does, he tends to be pretty understanding).
And as it stands: super excited. My monetary situation isn’t great (as an artist, that shouldn’t surprise anyone), but stable enough, my family seems to be more-or-less paying attention to the government (wise), and I got so much stuff done today. It was lovely.
The night is still relatively young, but the rest of it will be spent between homework (reading “An Enemy of the People”, a play for “Literature and Crime”) and finishing up a few touches on a short story I’d like to submit.
Won’t be doing these updates daily, I suspect, even with the additional time I have suddenly, but for now, spirits are high and I’m busy as heck.
Dinner will probably be pasta with cheese sauce. Because why not!?
Anti-Social Isolation...?
Wow, incredible how much things can change in a week.
Now, let’s get the good news out of the way first: I’m still healthy, I still think we (as Canadians) are going to emerge from this recent pandemic more-or-less okay (although no question a lot of people are going to suffer, and a lot of people are going to die before their time because of either thoughtlessness or idiocy), and nothing particularly massive has happened to anyone I know.
That stated, the fear in my local community has definitely ratcheted up. There has been some hoarding going on, and I’m hoping people put a lid on that soon, and a large number of people beginning to self-isolate for the good of the community. Which is excellent news, really, but a little weird.
All of this to say: I’m actually pretty happy with how this has impacted me personally, because I love having time to do stuff like write! The mandatory shutdown of retail hasn’t hit Ontario (yet?), but if/when it does, or if/when somebody I know gets sick and then I choose to isolate myself for two weeks…
Oh man, am I ever ready for that moment. I have stacks of books to read, work to write, models to paint. It’s going to be amazing!
I mean, one of my yearly vacations is basically isolating myself for a week to write anyway! This is just going to be more of that! I am going to get SO MUCH STUFF DONE!
Anyway. Not all sunshine: my trip to Adepticon was cancelled (more specifically, Adepticon was cancelled, and that sucks), and my partner is super stressed about her job and how this is going to impact a lot of her friends. I get that. I’m not, in any way, trying to imply that this global pandemic is a good thing. Just… ya know… I’m going to get a lot of writing done, and hopefully get several books published. Silver linings.
All that stated, I hope everyone out there is washing their hands way more often, and watching out for each other, being careful and cautious and all that. Let’s make sure to be good members of our communities and rise to this challenge, folks.
Off To the Editor
So Novel 4 (which I am still unhappy with the title of, which is why I keep calling it “Novel 4”) is heading off to my editor tonight. With any luck, I’ll have it back in a week or two, which will give me time to implement final changes into the story, get some cover art, and put it out for everyone to enjoy!
Means today is being spent cleaning up a naming issue (I switch between using first and last name for the main character throughout the work, and the most consistent feedback I’ve received is to not do that, so I’m going to pick one and stick with it). A little thing, but a significant thing.
And finishing up some school work, of course, but I’m done most of it already. I like being ahead of the curve… I have to finish reading “Neuromancer” again, but it’s not a difficult read (and it has been interesting going back to a novel I loved as a younger reader to see what parts hold up and what parts aren’t as strong as I remember… Molly, in particular, is somewhat problematic when viewed through a modern lens).
Anyway! Lots of stuff to do, never enough time to do it, but that’s okay! It’s really nice to be busy with writing work, rather than other work. And if I’m really, really lucky, I might even be able to get a few thousand more words done on Novel 5… which should be ready to go by late June! Four novels in 2020… four GOOD novels in 2020, of course!
Back to work! Hope everyone is having a lovely March thus far!