Everything Changes

Blog Post No. 542

Before I get into a strangely emotional little post, I want to thank everyone at CKExpo for being so awesome for my first event in three years! Only one person had a rude comment about my mask, the staff and guests were nice, and Christian was a trooper! I’m looking forward to dipping my toes further into events, hopefully attending some local ones soon!

I’m writing this post on Sunday because it’s the last day in my current position at the day job. Starting on Monday, I’m stepping into a full-time position at the same building. It means more responsibilities and more hours, but it also means benefits and (eventually) a regular schedule. The past six weeks have been really tough as I (along with my two coworkers) worked our regular jobs in an unusually busy time and filled in for the position I’m moving into.

Hark, An Event!

Blog Post No. 541

It’s actually happening and as I write this, I don’t know how I feel about it. This Saturday, I’m going to be in Chatham at the CKExpo with Christian for my first event since 2019. That’s just in a few days and I’m excited and nervous and feel pretty silly that something I used to do so regularly is affecting me so much. I’ll be wearing a mask the whole time (thanks for the N95, bro) and bringing a big bottle of sanitizer, and maybe a pack of wipes, I haven’t decided.

Early in the Year Update

Blog Post No. 529

Before I sat down to write this week’s post, I wasn’t 100% sure what I was going to write about. I had a few half-thought-out ideas, but nothing that felt strong enough for a post. Then, I went through some old posts to determine exactly when I started the Invasion Novel (because I’m not done talking about that thing, yet and won’t be for some time). Turns out, the first post where I talk about actually starting the novel was in November of 2018. I remember having a false start on the book. I had written a couple of chapters with a strong narrator, but right away, I knew that wasn’t the story I wanted to tell. Even still, if I take November 2018 as the starting date, that’s nearly five years of working on this book.

The 2023 Release Schedule

Blog Post No. 528

I’m not going to lie. The title of this post is a bit of a bait-and-switch. To be completely upfront, there is only one book planned for this year and even it’s only in the planning stages. I’ve started writing my part of it, though, so I want to talk a little about it. I briefly mentioned a potential anthology in a couple of recent posts. At that point, it was just a rough idea, but now, the participants have had a meeting to discuss ideas and plot themes. After that meeting, my brain does what it does and I was buzzing with ideas. It’s hard to not start on a new project with that excitement brewing, so I wrapped up what I had on my plate and started with an opening chapter.

Ten Years of Posts – 2022 in Review

Blog Post No. 527

Since January of 2013, I’ve written a weekly blog post on this website. (It was the tenth post overall). Ten years is a nice round number and a recognized milestone, so I’m really happy that I made it this far. Not to say I have any plans to stop, but ten years and over 500 posts seems like a lot while I look back on it. It’s kind of like that game Lemmings. There was an option to assign one of the little sprites to build a set of stairs. It started off slowly, pulling planks from a sack and laying them down on top of one another. Eventually, they would run out of material and if you were on top of things (and not looking towards the next obstacle on the map) you could select the same worker to keep building before it just walked over the edge.

Invasion Novel – Update

Blog Post No. 524

I sure hope I’m not going to be shooting myself in the foot (since I write my posts before their Thursday release) but if things go according to my current schedule, I should be done this draft of the Invasion Novel by tomorrow. I’m calling it the sixth draft even though I’ve been through the book more than six times. I feel like this is the sixth version of the book, though, so I’m sticking with it. While I’m optimistic that I’ll be finished, there is one potential issue that could make me a liar.

Breaking it Down

Blog Post No. 514

I’m a little embarrassed at how long it took me to get back into the edits on the Invasion Novel, but I’ve finally started to go over Christian‘s notes. As I suspected (and worried about) he had a few big picture suggestions that will really make the book better. The problem is that now I have to make those changes which involves going through the whole novel and making sure I connect all the dots so it makes any kind of sense.

Low Expectations

Blog Post No. 509

Just before I started to get back into editing the Invasion Novel (see last week’s post for details) I finished off a short story that I was writing for the specific purpose of submitting to an open call. Christian has had so many good things to say about Eerie River Publishing (the publisher that released Infested) and he’s been doing so well with selling short stories, that I was inspired to submit to one of Eerie River’s Open Calls. The thing is, it’s a horror publisher and the open call is for a horror story. Which would be great if I wrote horror stories.

Much More with the Invasion Novel

Blog Post No. 508

If you thought I was done talking about the Invasion Novel just because I finished it (and maybe suggested that I wouldn’t be talking about it as much) you were dead wrong. I’ve just been in a holding pattern waiting for Christian to wrap up the first review of the chunky book and working on short stories in the interim. (I’m just finishing off the last one that I had started since I’d like to submit it for a collection at the end of the month).

The Longer Path

Blog Post No. 507

Back when Adventure Worlds was just a blog for some want-to-be writers to post stories as we practiced our writing, the original group was about on the same footing. Christian probably written the most up to that point on a separate blog, but none of us had anything published, self pub or otherwise. That was back in 2013, nearly a decade ago.