This is the last week I have before I return to work on Friday. I’m excited but not. I’m excited to start this new journey, but I’m afraid of overextending myself.

This is good for six months, and then after this I have to reassess. Hopefully I won’t get sick again in the meantime.

I haven’t written, to tell you the truth, and I know, that’s bad. I’m actually beta-reading a novel for someone, and it’s over a hundred thousand words. At the same time I’m reading Second Company by Michael Hesse, which is how I really wanted War Mage to be but didn’t have the knowledge to do. To tell you the truth, he did a better job.

Dialysis gives me four hours to read, so I’ll have plenty of books on my Kindle.

Real Magic for Writers is selling steadily, probably because it’s cheap right now. We don’t know if it’s this blog, the podcast, or just Amazon bumping me up that’s doing the sales. It’s magic!

Just because you’re not putting anything on the page, it doesn’t mean that you’re not writing if you’re thinking about your work in progress.

I’m looking for inspiration to write something. City of Heroes’ characters are deep in that lore, so pulling Maximillian out will make things weird. A few people I talked to mentioned a children’s book, something upbeat and fluffy. All week I’ve been trying to think of “fluffy” and it always turns into something dark.

It’s a whole different mindset to think of something positive, when all you can think of is the negative. But I’m still thinking, trying to twist the negative into the positive.

I guess i need to watch more Star Trek.

So while I was writing Real Magic for Writers, I realized that I stumbled upon what I call in the book “The Secret.” It’s not really a secret; it’s what most other writers say about how to write.

Sit down and write.

That’s the secret. Simple, huh?

I was talking to someone recently who gave me a detailed Steampunk story, and ended it by saying, “But I have to write it.”

Well, yeah!

At the risk of putting people off: You’re not a writer if you think about writing. You have to do the work.

That’s what the core of Real Magic is–doing the work. (I’ve just saved you the price of the book.) I only hope that the book is uplifting enough and helpful enough for others to follow.

I did an author Meet and Greet with about 20 other authors at Woonsocket Harris Public Library. While most of the authors there didn’t seem to sell any, I sold three. One to a “fan” (I’ve got fans!); one to someone I hadn’t seen in a long time; and the third to one of the authors’ guests that I sat next to.

It seems that’s my base, people who have read the books and enjoyed them, and people that I know who want to try them out. Luckily, I go out to enough events that I get more fans than just family and friend. The “fan” told me she passed Grimaulkin on to her cousin. Who knows where it’ll go from there.

Watch this spot.

In the hospital with pneumonia since Saturday. Will update when I’m out

Now it’s the end of the year, and nothing left to do but write.

This afternoon I just finished “Libra” for Air. The publisher would like Air for the end of the year. This means I need to write a lot more quickly than usual.

When I need to write quickly, I plot it out. I use index cards, real live paper index cards, not virtual ones. I put the title of the piece in the left hand corner, in this case, the symbol for Libra, POV is Point of view. SH means the Sheriff, the main character. SC is the scene number, in this case, 3.

Next I write the setting I need to establish. Then in three or less sentences I summarize the scene. This is based on Holly Lisle’s “How to Revise Your Novel” online class which is not worth the $300 to spend on it when you can get a few other “How to Revise Your Novel” books for $14.99. But Holly’s course is actually fun if you’re like me, and like to deconstruct your novel over and over. I used it for the first Grimaulkin book, which unlocked a few ideas. I also used it for War Mage, twice, and it didn’t work.

This gives me enough space to do the actual writing without giving away the details. Because the fun of writing for me is coming up with the details, the plot cards only guide me. This way I don’t meander, waffle, or get distracted. I can get the writing done.

So hopefully Air will be done in 3 weeks. I’ve done most of “Gemini” (I need to add more sex scenes, to tell you the truth). I’m having trouble with “Aquarius”. Need to do research on him. Was going to do the “Summer of Love” but there was a lot of darkness then, too. After all, Charles Manson came up through the ranks at Berkeley. 

HIT:
At the Rhode Island Expo, I sold ten books. I was happy and excited, because I got to meet a real fan who read my books (the erotica series) and loved them. I also met two people who traveled from the northern part of the state just to come get my books (and another LBGTQ fantasy author). In RI, being such a small state, that’s a big thing. I also sold a few War Mages for the card reading aspect.

MISS:
I ended NaNoWriMo with 9500 words to go. The more words I added, the more stupid the whole thing started to sound. I knew I had to go back to the beginning and introduce Nash instead of introducing him in the middle. And I didn’t take note of the timing because I knew that Nash had to reappear on Thursday or Friday night – but I didn’t know where I wrote Thursday or Friday night. I started to re-read, and realized the entire first scene was a throw-away…so I gave up.

But the important thing is that I got a story out. Any words is better than no words, and now that I have something to work with, I can take care of things on the second pass. I’m going to let it rest for about a month, while I write one of the Air stories, and then get right back to it.

Here are my goals for 2019:

Brothers of the Zodiac: Air – Spring 2019
Grimaulkin in the Wild – (an anthology of backstories for Grimaulkin) Spring-summer 2019
Blood From a Stone – Fall 2019. That one needs a lot of TLC because it is really a hot mess. Max may end up telling this one.
Yellowtree – Summer 2019 Once I make it pretty.
Futhark (tentative title) – a standalone erotica story by Max – Unknown when.

So,finally started NaNoWriMo four days behind. On Saturday morning, I had 6K words. As of right now, I have 14.5K words. Not bad.

My waking up at five this morning did not help with writing at all, as I ended up passing out throughout the day in front of my computer, creating only 2200 words as of this writing.

I am afraid, as I always am, that the story itself will be too short for a novel. I looked up my subplots. One of my characters is not doing what I want him to do; one subplot hasn’t even been introduced; one subplot is barely mentioned. There’s flashbacks  and dream sequences that I hate using, but are necessary for the story. 

My friend asked me what it’s about. When I tried to explain that I can’t explain it right now, she didn’t understand. Non-creatives don’t get that when we’re in the thick of creating, we can’t explain what we’re doing or how we’re doing it. Sometimes we can’t explain it even afterward. 

I just hate being around non-creatives. They don’t get that we need the time, the space, the ability to create, and sometimes creating is a sacred and necessary act. I’m sorry, but I’d rather spend my weekends working on a novel than watching endless games of football. Or I’d rather use my imagination to create my own story rather than have it spoon-fed to me on a TV screen.

And I don’t do this for the money, Gods know. I do this because I have a story to tell, and I want you to see it or hear it or know what it is. I realized that the money is icing on the cake, like when I read cards. It’s an exchange of energy, one thing for another.

I used to  read cards for free, and I prefer to do that even now. But I’ve learned since that card-reading is a service that people are willing to pay for. I don’t charge an arm and a leg for it; I try to keep things cheap because, again, I have a story to tell you about yourself and I want you to know it.

Why do I create? Because the muses tell me to. And they are far more interesting than any of the stuff on air, because it’s mine.

So, I’m feeling much better than I was last week. It seems this week has been pretty good healthwise (Knock on Formica).

Fire’s final proof got sent back to the editor with a few corrections, so that’s expected to be out in October. Also in October will be “War Mage”. I will also be at the Autumnfest for three days in Woonsocket, RI. I don’t expect to sell lots of books there, but I expect to have good food.

I’m working on Air, to be ready for February of next year. After that, I have no idea what to do. Blood From a Stone might be something, but that’s a stand-alone murder mystery. After that…no idea. Well, I do have an idea for continuing with Grimaulkin, either adventures he has on his own or adventures he has with Ash, his nephew. There’s also an idea of an anthology for other Grimaulkin characters, like how Aunt Jane died, where Ritter came from, who Cavalier really was…that’s a possibility.

I’m also going to try to enter more contests and anthologies next year. Maybe get my name out there somewhere.