9:44pm

I’m winding down as I type this. It will probably be the last major task I complete today.

My sleep has been a little screwed up the past couple days, and I think that might be why I’m yawning quite a bit.

It’s been a productive day, though. I wrote 1,756 words today on my current fiction project. That project is Tempus, Primogenitor #4. I’m really enjoying how it’s shaping up, and as you’ll see in the screenshot below, those words went to Chapter 24. My side bet with myself is that there will be 30–or maybe 31–chapters in Tempus, but we’ll see where the story feels complete.

While I do set a target word count goal for all of my stories, I don’t really follow it. I write until the story feels complete and is in the area of the desired word count. I grew up on the “door stop” Fantasy and Science Fiction novels, and that’s the length and format I feel most comfortable with. I aimed for 105,000 words for the Drakmoor and Cole & Srexx novels, but for my recent projects, I’ve aimed for 96,250. The Primogenitor novels, though, I aim for 85,000. I like the shorter, smaller books; I say ‘smaller,’ because I use the 5″x8″ trim size as opposed to the 6″x9″ trim size.

If I published print versions of Primogenitor in 6″x9″, they’d almost be chap books. Well, no… not really, but I’m sure you get the idea.

I also started an Udemy course on Full Stack Web Development. I have a couple of projects that I’ve decided would work better as web apps, as opposed to discrete software that you install on your computer… BUT… all of my development experience is with discrete software. So, back to the classroom I go…

So far, most of the tools used in the course appear to be Open Source, which is nice. I like Open Source quite a bit; I’m just not enough of a coder to contribute, as all of my professional coding experience is Windows-based. Knowing me, I’d send a code snippet that would end up crashing the entire development project, and I do not want that reputation at all. There are a list of achievements I’d be okay being known for, but crashing an Open Source project? Nah… I’ll pass, thanks.

If anyone reading this would like to know more about becoming a full stack web developer, here is the course I started.

I’ve also been knocking around the idea of studying up on graphics design. I had a top-notch graphics designer a while back, but he disappeared on me. Not sure what happened there, but I wish him and his family well in all respects.

Anwho…

I’m not sure I’m sufficiently interested in graphics design to actually use what I’d learn. At best, I’d have very limited applications, like designing book covers and such, but I already have someone for that. And I like throwing money at her from time to time. She’s behind every cover since Dawn of the Sorcerer.

Oh… speaking of covers…

I’m going to publish The Shepherd next week in eBook and print. I still need to finish proofing the audio, since February was a bit on the crazy side, so it’ll probably be a week or two before that’s available on Knightsfall Press. And speaking of proofing audio, my super-awesome narrator uploaded the first round of audio for Hyperion today, so I’ll dig into that as soon as I get caught up on The Shepherd.

Damn. I have A LOT going on. This is kind of new for me lately.

I’ll need to start managing my time (and sleep) better.

Hopping back to the topic of newsletters, if you’re reading this and are one of my newsletter subscribers, I’ll write one up for March over the weekend and schedule it for Tuesday the 5th.

Ya know… looking at what’s on my screen right now and thinking about what came before it, it occurs to me that these posts have kinda become brain dumps. I’m not sure whether I like that or dislike that. I’ll have to spend a few minutes sometime thinking about it.

Alrighty. I’ve rambled on for long enough, I think. I’ll post a Writing Log screenshot below.

Hope the days treat you and yours well.

Stay safe out there.