progress on Book 23

Progress on Book 23 is not the speed of progress I'd like, but I've been juggling a lot of things lately. With a new small business and my regular part-time day job (which pays the bills to start a new small business), along with my daily walking, church, and prayer time, there isn't much left. (And then I took a week off to rewrite/edit Book 1 when I finally saw it through a different lens.)

Book 23 will be a bit of a space western. I had to do it. After a high fantasy in Book 19 and a sort-of ancient Greco-Roman style in a couple of books, I settled on a western-ish setting for this, although with the usual elements of this series making it only somewhat of a western in style. I said early on that this series would have a lot of different story possibilities all rolled into one universe. I wasn't expecting this, but it works.

I'm making my time count for writing. Some days I can write 1,000 words, like today. Some days, I barely eek out a few dozen. Sometimes, I can't even think to write, but this has been the writing cycle for decades. I do what I can when I can, and I had a lot of trouble settling on the opening of this book, which set me back more than anything else. Now that I have the plot figured out, even the difficult days produce something.

I'm between a third and halfway on the first draft of Book 23; and, on the way to church yesterday (early evening mass), I had an idea for how to bring to a head a subplot of this series, a subplot I've been developing with the introduction of Alric. Most of it, you haven't seen yet--Books 21 & 22 get more into that. Having it come to fruition in Book 23 will work out well. When I get to the final battles of the series in Books 24 & 25, that subplot will kick up the emotions more fully.

I also just started reading Book 20 again. I've been reading around a chapter each time I walk on the treadmill, and the timing is always about what I need in relation to what I'm writing or plotting. Once I get through that, I'll start formatting Collection 4 (Books 16-20) for print and ebook editions.

In a perfect world, I'd be finishing up the first draft by now, but that's not happening. That's a good thing, though. When I slow down, I discover new aspects of the overall series, like realizing what needs to be brought out with Alric and the setting in Book 23.

I knew the final books of the series would be difficult. It will delay publishing the next book until February or March, and then writing the series climax begins.

Thanks for reading!