IT IS TIME.
Time to subject myself to the bittersweet writing cycle again. Nara’s saga has just begun to take shape, and she has a whole solar system to experience. With the shaky end of the publication phase of Sleepless Flame, I barely had any time to recover my wits. But I find myself in this weird creative limbo where I have no desire to work on any side projects. And the lure of the Outline Sirens is calling. ONCE MORE INTO THE FRAY.
THE TIMELINE AS IT IS:
APRIL will be dedicated to outlining and technology development of an alien species. How long that will last will depend entirely on how well my brain can function. I am hoping no more than the entirety of the month. I will cut myself off regardless to begin the prose.
For those of you who are curious, I am a hybrid outliner and pantser writer. I will outline obsessively for an extended period of time, then decide to chuck everything out and do something else altogether as the pieces start fitting together. Now this doesn’t mean my outlining was a waste of time, it was just a step I had to take in order to get to my destination.
I have written a more detailed post on my writing process, if you are in to that sort of thing.
MAY is when I will start the prose, or earlier if I actually make headway with the storyline. Here is where I will also be writing the art brief for the cover and tease that along the way. As of now, I have the first chapter plotted out, as well as the direction of the story progression. The conclusion, however, is a mystery to me.
JULY is when I will reveal the cover and title to torment you all, and hopefully have set up preorders, at least on Smashwords, since I know they have a 12 month projection permitted. The thought of having a Halloween release is tempting, but I am also not sure if I want to wait until end of 2019. I am sure you feel the same.
After that, it is all up in the air. Sleepless Flame took SEVEN. YEARS. to come to completion, and that was due almost entirely to the fact that I was not considering myself a full time author. I had living situations to deal with, as well as mental health issues. Fun times were not had by all.
Now that this is my “job,” I am using the sequel to gauge a better metric for this bullshit. I’m still foggy about a lot of things, mostly about how to plan a release date while getting reviewers their material ahead of time. A lot of that doesn’t make sense to me, because I am NOT about to put a sub par piece of material in front of a reviewer. Maybe it’s a matter of putting your release date months ahead of your solid “finish date” or something. Any advice is welcome! Reach out to me on the Tweeters.
For now, I will drown myself in a Witch House playlist and maybe try not to go full hermit for this piece.
I may learn to relax a bit. Maybe haunt the local library. I need this print to motivate me.
OTHER BULLSHIT UPDATES:
I will also be updating the newsletter email frequency so that I do not bombard your inboxes with weekly updates. The Weekly Summary Reports are mostly there to be my public accountability posts, and a personal way to track my progress. Therefore, I will only be sending out emails whenever I make a “meaty” post like writing tips and short stories once or twice a month. But don’t fret, I will also send a link to the Weekly Summary Report archive for you to check out at your leisure. I know some of you enjoy watching my gradual descent into unintelligible eldritch frothing. And of course this is most likely where I will post the release date for Sleepless Flame 2.0
And ALSO! The folks over at New England Speculative Writers are having a giveaway featuring Sleepless Flame as well as thirteen additional titles from fantastic authors on the East Coast. If you want to snag a digital copy of my book for free check out the link here:
https://claims.instafreebie.com/gg/MGKtj5Ue4gPP4E0bRJzy
And I think that will do it from me, if you have read the book, please do feel free to leave me a review on Amazon, it helps me out a ton to let other readers know what sorts of good fun they are in for.
Until Next Time! Well wishes appreciated!
-Odin
