Quick Status Update
Well despite a heavy push, the first novel in the steampunk series I’m working on still isn’t complete. The original target was to have it wrapped up May 1st (a novel every four months), but the Fantasy workshop by Kris Rusch I attended in the last full week of April set me back some.
I had to write a short story before I arrived to the workshop so that took up the week before the workshop and then at the workshop I was kept so busy I never once even entertained the idea of working on the novel. I’d love to say the workshop was an incredible experience, but I was sick the whole time (bad ear infection the week before->antibiotics->kill all good GI bacteria->miserable for weeks). It’s only now three weeks later that I’ve finally recovered. If it hadn’t been for that it would been an incredible week. Kris really knows her stuff and more importantly, knows how to effectively communicate it. I would never hesitate to recommend her as a teacher.
But it was harder than I anticipated to come back and slip into the novel. I spent the first week back editing the previous 80% of the novel and then it was back to drafting, which I had hoped to finish by today. Alas, no. Even after a 8k word week (which is pretty solid for me). But the end is definitely in sight. One, possibly two more chapters, then the validation chapter and the epilogue to set up book 2 (which I already wrote–the epilogue that is, not book 2). Should be done this week.
During all of this, I’ve begun development on the Underwater Restorations novel which I’m targeting to come out this late fall. I’m also hoping that the Underwater Restorations novel will put me back on track of a novel every four months. It should write faster as it’s single POV and I’m targeting a length of 60k (where the steampunk is an epic with multi-POV that will likely come in at ~105k [it’s 99k now]). I’ve also cooked up an awesome opening sequence and I’m itching to write for the Underwater Restorations novel, but I’m saving it as a reward for finishing the steampunk novel.
So now I guess I’m out of excuses and will go back writing the novel. I’ll go out on a limb and say the next time I check in, I’ll be happy to report that the first draft will be done.