Blog No. 303
I don’t know how I did it, but I’m taking credit! The temporary autumn weather is totally because of last week’s post! I know Summer is likely to rear it’s humid head at least once more this year, but I’m enjoying every second of this cool, dreary, damp weather. Right up my alley. It’s perfect for going for a walk, reading under a blanket, or staying inside a coffee shop writing the book you should have had finished at the beginning of Summer. Speaking of which, I sat down for the first time in a long time and just did some writing the other day. I did it the next day too, but getting to work on days off it easy. I’m finding it harder to get the writing in after a long day at work. Baby steps, right?
With the next ChiSeries Windsor being next on the list of events, I’m leaning into it full force. Christian made that awesome banner and poster, so I had a few of them printed and scattered them around the city. We were disappointment with how much posters made a difference for our first few events, but Chiseries is such a cool thing, I thought that posting a few in some key areas would be worth while. It’s not that expensive and we really want to build the regular audience from the last few people who have read and those who came to see their friend read at the current event. We have some big plans for this year’s fundraiser reading in November, so making more people aware is key. All the fun and games in the world fall apart if there is no one to play, and we will definitely need people to play. We came up with some stellar games.
Other than that, the rest of the month will be taken up with writing (along with the normal weekly responsibility like the day job) and putting the last touches on my new room. I will likely we working on setting up the room the way I like it for some time, but once the shelves are in and my books are in their home, the only real thing left to do is get the rest of my stuff out of my brother’s way and help him start organizing the next step of the renovations. Work won’t really start for some time, but there is plenty to do in terms of organizing all the remaining material, getting rid of the junk, and prepping the rooms. There is a bunch of old thin-set on the floors that needs to be chipped away and there is a bunch of mudding and sanding to do. I hope we can pick away at it around our busy schedules and not necessarily have full days dedicated to it. As I said, I’m still not so good with getting writing stuff done when my whole day is spent doing something else. Something to work on, though.
As far as my writing goes, I still have ten-thousand or so words to go on the first draft of Neon Heart. I’m not to worried about getting to the edits right away as I’m not planning to have it out until later in the new year. I intended the series to be a summer launch thing, but depending on when some of my milestone events are happening next year and if Christian’s next book will be out or not, I may try to get it out earlier than summer. That still means I will leave it for a couple months and not rush the edits like I did with Thinking Machine. The space should help me be more objective and after a couple edits on my own, I should still have time to let as many other people read it over as possible. Again, depending on the event schedule. I really want to push to have a new book out every year, even if it is just the next book in the novella series. In the mean time, I will finally get started on a new novel. I know I have one in the can, but it will need a total rewrite by now and I don’t think it’s the right first book to sell. Lots to do. I’d better figure out writing after work or I’ll never get done.
Ben Van Dongen 