Hiatus

There is a two-year gap between the prior post and this one. Not that I have written nothing, but that none of it was useful. I took a break from the Postal Marine series, and tinkered with an Alternate History series. After putting myself into an editorial death spiral with Postal Marines, I thought shifting to a new series was the only way out.

This November, I went to the 20 Books Vegas 2021 conference. There were many well-prepared talks. I drifted to the ones focused on motivation. Conferences are also about networking; making new friends and acquainting yourself with old ones. As writing goes, I have no friends. (Cue sad ballad) I made some acquaintances, however. Let’s see how this goes.

In describing my dilemma, those I spoke with were unified in their response: finish the Postal Marines. I pitched the new series. They liked it. Then they said: finish the Postal Marines. Before my flight went wheels up. I committed to finishing the first four novels and re-releasing them by 20 Books Vegas 2022. Given two books were largely in the can, that meant I only have to finish two books by about August. Those incomplete books have been through various revisions, so they are not de novo.

It has been a month since 20 Books. What do I have to show for myself? I proofread Bellicose and Scintilla, which helped me find many errors and reacquaint myself with the series. I dug up several old drafts of Luctation, and settled on the one closest to my vision and least broken. I then re-plotted Luctation and dove into the rewrite. I would like to finish the draft by 31 January.

I found why Luctation was causing me grief. Right after the inciting incident, there was a fatal logic bomb. I think I caused it by forcing the plot over the story. This has me iterating between refining my characters and revising the plot. Will I make 31 January?

Other Updates

What else has happened since November 2019? I’ve revised this site’s theme to be more minimalist, which included purging many articles. I completed a Masters in Technical Management and earned an international Chief Information Officer certificate in Spring 2020. I became a grandfather in Summer 2020.