Blog Post No. 483
Some years ago, I was at Arvin‘s place and I saw that he had a whiteboard set up on an easel with all his many to do lists scrawled across its surface. It would have been in our university days and probably in the midst of Wii Like To Podcast production. I thought the idea was great. A non-permanent place to write reminders that was clearly visible. My family had a whiteboard set up by the garage door when I was little, but it was rarely used, and at the time, I certainly didn’t have a need (or at least the wherewithal) to keep notes or a schedule.
I’ve tried hard over the last few years to avoid writing posts about not having anything to write about. I relied on that strategy around this time for several years until I started doing more events and got into writing reviews about them. Maybe those event recaps aren’t the most interesting thing to read, but I hope they’re better than constantly commenting that I have no ideas. With no events to rely on and the Invasion Novel still not finished, I don’t think I have much of a choice but to ramble my way through another post without having much to say. Or, maybe I’ll find a good topic right at the end and have something to expand upon next week. 
It’s March. Like, already. Every year things move ever faster towards the inevitable. But until then, let’s talk about what’s going on with my various projects. The obvious one is The Neon Heart, but there’s a novel in there, various events, 
Last night was the Third ChiSeries Windsor of the year. It’s the sixth that we’ve had overall, though there was some confusion on why we only did three last year. The answer is because we were invited to start hosing locally after the time the first one would have been. Normally, I write up a perspective post about the event, assuming everything is going to be super-awesome-rad, but I have other things I think can fill a post, so I’m going to try and leave it for next week and see how much I can remember. I still think it’s going to be a good night. I wouldn’t be able to suffer through the disappointing events if I didn’t. We have three great authors (two I know are good people and I assume the third is as well) and the musician is not only a nice guy, but he’s really good at the music stuff too. With that out of the way, I’ll move on the the topic of this post. A good, old fashioned update. 
Even though it’s just the start of 2018 and admittedly, I didn’t have a stellar 2017, I am happy to say, I think I have enough on the go to do a proper update. The dust hasn’t quite settled on the last book (though, I pray it will finally be over this week) I am hard at work on the next one. This may all be old hat to avid readers of my blog (namely my folks) but it may be new to you. Either way, this may be the definitive rundown and I have some concrete things to say about it. I can’t give a specific date for when it will be out (not only have I been burned with that before, but I’m already waiting for some things that are out of my control before I can get it finished) though, I hope it will be out in the next couple months. 
I don’t want to jump the gun with that title. I don’t expect to have another update until January, but if you’ve spent any time reading this blog, you know I can’t be trusted. The fact is, I’m getting so close to finishing the first draft of Pilot that I don’t know if I it would be worth doing another update of it. While I’ll be thrilled that I finished (long than planned, but here we are) and I’m sure I’ll want to share it with the world, if it’s too close to now, it would feel weird. Maybe? But I’ve been holding off on an update and I don’t think I can’t wait much longer, so I don’t want to just wait until I’m done. (Even thought I probably just should). I’ve gone too far now anyway, so I’ll just keep plugging forward! Tally Ho! 
In January, I decided to stop writing the book I was working on and started writing another one. The idea was that I would be able to knock out 40 000 words in a few months and have myself a finished novella. It took me until the end of July to reach my original goal, but by then, the story was nowhere near done. I shifted gears and from then on I’ve called the story a novel (or short novel) and had the intention of hitting 60 000 words. From the beginning of August (sitting at near 40 000 words) to the end of September, I struggled to get another 10 000 words. It was a rough time. I did poorly. 
Ben Van Dongen 