5:24am

Yeah… that time is correct. I’ve been struggling with my sleep schedule lately, and I’m fighting my way through getting back to a semi-decent day/night schedule. I’d love to wake up somewhen around 11pm to 1am, as I feel that puts me in a perfect window of time to write with zero interruptions. It’s not difficult to string together four hours of writing time between midnight and 8am, and I’ve decided four hours is my optimal amount of writing time to meet the word count goals I want.

As always, though, I am a work in progress. Just like the rest of us…

So, a couple days ago(-ish), I made a post on Facebook (my profile plus my author page) about a glitch I discovered on the back-end management area of this site. I thought something was so FUBAR that I’d have to restore the entire site from backups. Fortunately, that was not the case, because…

The backups haven’t worked since January.

Yeah… that was a lovely discovery. I think I have that sorted, so that I will be getting the backups I want, but I’m going to check later to day to be sure.

So, what was the issue? Why… I’m glad you asked. It was a plugin in dire need of an update. I updated it, and the updating solved the problem. When I realized it was at least partially responsible for the issue, I was going to just deactivate it, but I saw it needed an update. And luckily, the update worked.

Happy days!

But on to more enjoyable pursuits… like writing!

I had a four-day writing streak (22 June – 25 June) until I realized I need to be awake and have the option of being active during the daylight hours. I then lost two days of writing while I battled my sleep schedule… and… I drove Dad to a VA appointment yesterday and came close to napping in the car while I waited for him.

However, all that being said… I am pleased to report two things.

#1: Tempus, Primogenitor #4 should be coming back from its first pass with my editor next week. Even better, she told me she’s loving it. I’ll create the pre-orders either today or tomorrow, probably for the first Tuesday in August or maybe the second.

#2: I am in the process of writing Chapter 35 of Colfyr, the second installment of Shepherd Security Services. I’m really liking how it’s shaping up, and it is so much fun to write.

Oh! I have some other news, too!

So, I decided to re-cover the Primogenitor Saga. I’ve had the new covers for a little while now, but over the weekend, I’ll be rolling them out and setting up the missing print editions of Hyperion & The Shepherd for publication.

I am very proud to blame the amazing Suzie O’Connell (of Sunset Rose Books) in public for all of my covers since Dawn of the Sorcerer, and she kept her streak alive with the new covers for the Primogenitor Saga. You know what… I’ll just show you what I mean.

And it’s probably not fair to gush over the new Primogenitor covers without including Colfyr‘s, too. Even though I’m pretty sure you’ve already had the opportunity to see it…

My rough estimate is that Colfyr will be available later in August or (very) early September. I want to have it finished so that my editor can roll right into working on it after Tempus… assuming she has an available time slot, of course.

I am already 3,232 words into my writing day so far, and I’m probably going to go for a walk or something… heh, maybe I should wait for daylight to walk. Either way, I’m going to pause for a little bit. I hit a pretty good flow state on the last 1,789 words of Chapter 34, and I’d like to re-capture that when I finish Chapter 35.

If I am successful at hitting four hours of writing time the rest of June, I may bump my Daily Time and Daily Word goals in my Writing Log. Dunno yet, though.

Alrighty, folks… I’ve rambled on long enough.

I hope the days treat you and yours well.

Stay safe out there.