11:46pm

Given the time at which I’m typing this, the post’s date when I finally finish and publish will probably be 10 November, but I imagine that’s largely academic.

Back in June, I attended my very first writing retreat. While there, I met someone I have added to my list of writer friends. This particular individual happens to be very accomplished in the Lean Six Sigma process improvement methodology, and I have been working with them to sort out a number of my processes and super-processes (processes that have many, many sub-processes within them… not sure if that’s an actual term, but it works for me).

One of these is my perennial quest to develop a daily, consistent writing habit.

I have not completed the Lean Six Sigma method yet, but the idea occurred to me that it might help if I dedicate each month to a given series and write the next story in that series during its month.

I feel like I have far too many active projects right now. While I believe it’s good to have two or three (just in case you hit a run of project block and need to let a story percolate for a little bit), I have something like six (or maybe seven?) at the moment.

Not really a fan of that…

I’m still turning the idea around in my mind, but on the surface, it feels pretty good. I’ll write more updates as we get closer to 2025.

In other news…

The Cole & Srexx revision is going well. I’m currently reading through It Ain’t Over…, and like I said a few posts ago, I’m not touching it a whole lot. I’ve fixed a couple continuity things I’ve found so far and made a couple adjustments for clarity in one or two instances, but I don’t expect it will leave this “revision” looking signficantly different from how it looked when I started.

Oh, wow… I just realized that it’s officially six years old this month. I wrote the first draft of it during NaNoWriMo 2018. It was my third novel, and I wrote it while I was waiting on the editor to have availability for Into Vushaar.

Damn. Talk about a stroll down Memory Lane.

In reading through it again, it is very obvious to me that It Ain’t Over… is my third novel. I could wax eloquent for several paragraphs about everything I’ve seen that makes me want to cringe.

But!

It is far beyond what I was writing when I first started over twenty years ago, so in the grand scheme of things, it’s not that bad.

My current thoughts on the revision timetable are that I will be through the first three titles by the end of the year and write the new Fires of Aurelius in January… which just so happens to coincide with my tentative writing plan. I’m not sure if it will shake out that way, but that’s what I’m thinking at the moment.

I still need to work up the back cover copy for Colfyr, which is why that’s not up for pre-order yet. I think I’ll focus on that as soon as I post this and (hopefully) have it ready to start the pre-order everywhere tomorrow.

Given that my current sleep schedule has me going to bed around 4am and waking up around noon, you should interpret “tomorrow” as daytime Sunday, 10 November.

All right. That’s about all I can think of to ramble about, unless you truly want me to go deep into the dark recesses of my mind… which you really don’t. Trust me on that.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for sticking with me.

I hope the days treat you and yours well. Stay safe out there.