Howdy muchachos!
Got another scintillating update for y’all. It’s April 17th (I know, that ain’t news, y’all can see that in the corner of your screen with the time and everything) and that means we’re past the middle of the month.
Really?
Yes, really. It means we’re past the halfway point in April’s Camp NaNoWriMo and for me it means I’m officially halfway through writing The Shift (sequel to Apache Dawn). Holy smokes—right? I have written a chapter a day (keep in mind this is the first draft folks, there’s bound to be some changes) since April 1. I already had 4 chapters in the books before April 1, so we’re 21 chapters in (planned 38 34). For you word-hounds out there, Apace Dawn was about 145,000 words, give or take a few thousand. I plan on The Shift being at least that many. So far in April I have written about 65,000 words. We’re approaching my single month maximum (set in Jan 2015: 72,000 words). My goal for April–publicly declared for NaNoWriMo–is 100,000. Add the 25,000-30,000 I wrote before April started and we’re knockin’ on the door to 100,000 already. I’m estimating by the end of the month if I hold the course I’m on, The Shift will end up around 150,000, right where I want it.
How’s that for some good news?
If this little experiment works, I’ll attempt to write AJE3 in the month of May, and hopefully release The Shift by the end of June. Keyword: hopefully. That’s the plan at least.
What about AJE3, you ask? I’m hoping to get that wrapped up sometime during the end of the summer (hey, I got 3 little kids and I’m a stay-at-home-dad. It’s gonna be a busy, exhausting 3 months for me).
The rest of the year is already stacking up like planes over O’Hare. I dabbled in Sci-fi and HF (Historical Fiction) before I published Apache Dawn, and those books are itching for some newly honed editorial skills. I might be releasing them later this year, though they’ll likely be under a pseudonym so no one gets confused and think’s Erik Larsson is flying a spaceship or something.
I’ll post more on this later.
I must say, that I’m happy to be dictating my work! You see, earlier this week, I had a run in with a potato peeler. I bought a coconut for my kids at the store and attempted to open the sucker without power tools.
Actually surprised myself that I didn’t cut my hand off while using the meat cleaver to crack the shell. Once that was open, I used a butter knife to scoop out the innards. Still without injury, I decided to tempt fate one last time and use a potato peeler to scrape the inner shell off of the meat.
Thinking I was home free, I took my concentration away for a second and when I looked down I noticed there was blood in the coconut.
That flat part there is round on my other thumb!
When all was said and done, I slathered the wound with Neosporin, wrapped in a bandage, and realized that if I had tried typing a chapter that day it would not have happened. That would have ruined my week and broken the pledge to get The Shift written during the month of April!!
Luckily, since I dictate, my fingers are actually rather useless for writing! I was able to continue writing as if nothing had ever happened… Doing everything else around the house, well, that’s another matter… It’s been a long week, but my thumb is finally on the mend and it’s even regaining some of its original shape!
For now, it’s time to get back to work. Gotta wrap up today’s chapter!
The Freeholder 