Blog Post No. 435
With all hands on deck working to finish Break/Interrupt by next week, there it’s anything else going on for me to talk about. Since I’m still hiding at home, I don’t even have the day job to complain about or regular excursions around the city on which to muse. I’m always excited to get to the end of a project, but I seem extra eager for this one. Since time in the pandemic is so weird, it’s felt like I’ve been writing and editing this thing for a year and not the eight months it’s really been. Wow, it’s only been eight months. Also strange to think about.
I have done a few small things while the novella has been in progress. I wrote a short story during the Virtual Writing Retreat. I made some major progress towards the ebooks, too (though, I should really have wrapped that up by now). Thinking about it while I desperately try to flush out a topic for this week’s post. Finishing the ebooks really has to be what I do next. If I can get the full novella series out as ebooks in the major online stores, I can push the sales and maybe get some income and a bit more of a following while I switch gears for the summer and dive into the Invasion Novel edits.
It’s a bit of wishful thinking, but like with most things, if you don’t try, you’ll never succeed. The worst thing that can happen from getting the ebooks out is that I don’t sell any (barring some major screwup that fills them with profanity or something and burns my nonexistent image as an author). I still want to get another one or two short stories written before I really roll up the sleeves and get to work on the novel, but I also don’t want to wait too long. August will be here before I know it and I’ll have to jump into the first draft of Snow From a Distant Sky, the next novella.
It’s all a balancing act and I have no idea which is the right way to lean, but if I put my head down and keep working, changing direction when it makes sense, I should eventually get to a destination. Ideally that’s one where I am a full-time author making enough money that I’m not quite as stressed out about the future. Thinking about the future every now and again isn’t a bad idea and I’ve been putting more effort into it the last few years, but if you let yourself get consumed with worry and can’t enjoy anything about the now, what’s the point. 
Really, I’m mostly just excited to get the new novella out and the stress of the coming deadline seeps into everything, even though I should be able to get everything done in time.
Stress is nuts. At least I’m going to have a new book to show for it! I can’t wait to show the cover off, you’re going to love it!
Ben Van Dongen 