Cate Morgan's Blog, page 10

Author’s Log: Getting The Work Done (#amwriting, #ROW80)

Weekly Stats (Sun-Sat):

Words Drafted: 4,610

Best Word Count: 1,209 (Thursday)

Daily Average Needed To Finish Draft: 1,353

 

Just a few things to report this week, I think. The Tech Monkey has been off school for spring break, which tends to disrupt my writing schedule. So does the fact that he got laid off from his Evil Day Job a few weeks ago, which means, being a sociable sort of creature, he misses human interaction during the day.

Turns out the getting laid off bit looked to be a blessing in disguise after the fact. He was only working part time to pay his college tuition, and once he was gone his employers, who’d always treated him well, did an about face when it came to the Tech Monkey trying to claim unemployment benefits. It made no sense, and naturally the Tech Monkey felt betrayed by the whole thing, but he won arbitration in the end. So there was that.

On Tuesday (Saint Patty’s, appropriately) BRIGHID’S FLAME (Keepers of the Flame #3) was released by Samhain. YAY! Keepers 4 is under review with Editor Awesome now.

I must say, it’s quite satisfying to see my book list growing apace every ninety days or so. It’s always satisfying to see one’s hard work pay off in a nice, neat row of books with pretty covers. :-D

KUMFAR! DO THE DANCE OF JOY!!

Extremely late night on Friday. Didn’t sleep well, despite exhaustion, but DID awaken with another plot bunny rattling around in my head. Not sure what it is yet. I only have a title–DEAD MAN’S KISS–which. I think, will be a fantasy. I have a vague notion of an afterlife plane called Eterna, and that DEAD MAN’S KISS is an assassin’s blade, and there are a guild of assassins called the Dead Men. I may, or may not, have the first paragraph.

That’s all I have for now, so I’ll leave it to percolate a bit. Sometimes things have to percolate for a while so the story bubbles to the top. I have no idea when I’ll be able to write it, whatever it is, but it’s in there somewhere.

What I’m Reading:

I’ve started the Johannes Cabal series, which I’m enjoying quite a lot. It’s filling the gap Terry Pratchett left behind in my fantastical humor spot, like a bunch of escaped asylum inmates raucously singing from Necronomicon: The Musical.

I also got pulled onto the Patrick Rothfuss bandwagon, without quite knowing how it happened. I’m listening to the audio of Name of the Wind at work, and am enjoying it immensely thus far. I’ve been resisting audio books up to now, but I have so little time to read without staying up past midnight I decided to give it a go.

What I’m Watching:

I started re-watching Leverage for probably the third time. For one, this show makes me exceptionally happy. For another, I’m modeling my hero from THIRTEEN WATCHES a bit on Eliot, who is one of my very favorite characters ever. Mainly because Eliot would make a magnificent werewolf bounty hunter. He is soft-spoken, and dangerous, and constantly on the edge of Hulking out. Watching Eliot being forced to use guns in one episode is terrifying and heartbreaking and beautiful all at once, and that’s what I’m shooting for with Michael.

Goals!

 

Draft 30K Words/Month

QUEST IN PROGRESS.

THIRTEEN WITCHES (Power of Three #1): 16,468/30,000= 55% Complete.

Upped the drafting again this week, as next week I’m ramping up through the end. Kat has figured out where her sister is, and the people responsible are going to pay. Badly.

I’ve found, at least in my case, that the middle of a book is always that 1K-2K of word counts every day, getting the words in and doing the job. But once I’m through the second plot point (around the 75% mark), as the momentum of the story increases so does my drafting count. Once I’m in that final 10 or 15 percent I go a little mad and type my fingers to the bone getting to THE END. I love that sweet spot when I come out of a writing session in something of a daze, having just written 5K-7K rather unexpectedly. I live for those sessions.

Revise Blood & Steam #1

QUEST IN PROGRESS.

So far, so good. As far as big items go, I need to find a place to clarify Drew’s motivation and to go into the ship’s engine I hint at in the beginning of the book, so there’s a reason for my reader to cheer when it actually works right when it really, really needs to. Otherwise, it’s little tweaks I need to make, so I know I’m closer than not to a final draft.

I did announce a release date this week, and post my landing page, here on my website.

New Cover Art/Branding:

QUEST IN PROGRESS.

I started on the new cover for THE LADY TENNANT this week, in addition to trying out some things for Blood & Steam #1. I have an idea of how I want to brand the series, I just need to tinker a bit before I figure out how to pull it off.

I still want to re-release Keepers: Origins 1 & 2 by the end of the month, so I can re-release and widely distribute Waking Muse beginning in April as my KDP Select period begins to run out. This means I need to write faster, so I have time for some of these Admin type things that need to get done, now that I’m starting to get a little more visibility.

Blood & Steam #1 revision must come first, however, after the drafting, since I have a hard deadline on this book. My indie editor is expecting a final manuscript from me on or before April 1.

How’s the writing going for you guys this week? Let me know in the comments!

Author’s Log: Just Keep Writing (#amwriting, #ROW80)

Weekly Stats (Sun-Sat):

Words Drafted: 4,802

Best Day: 2,796 (Saturday)

Average Daily Count to Complete Draft: 1,209

So I spent a lot of time revising this week. A LOT.

I ended up going through THE MINSTREL’S DAUGHTER again, because Reasons. Some of which may or may not be related to OCD and a healthy dose of paranoia. Which, in my book, means diligence, a lot of tea, and an all-day polishing session ending in a midnight crunch. But well worth it, because I ended up finding some things that did NOT need to be viewed by Very Important People.

o.O

*casually taps delete key multiple times*

In the end, I was able to shave about 3K in Unnecessary Shenanigans from the final manuscript. So YAY.

I’m still keeping a fairly steady drafting schedule on THIRTEEN WITCHES (Power of Three #1), however, so we’re still on schedule Production-wise.

And, let’s not forget, BRIGHID’S FLAME (Keepers of the Flame #3) is being released from Samhain this Tuesday. Double YAY!

Also this week, I was devastated to hear Terry Pratchett passed away. He was one of my very favorite authors, and Discworld was one of my very favorite series. My first book of his was Maskerade, from the Witches cycle. I remember laughing myself breathless when Nanny Ogg, clad in an overly stretched pink tutu and hobnailed boots, danced an enthusiastic hornpipe amid a line a tall, twinkly-toed ballerinas.

It’s largely Discworld, and that scene, that honed the humor I use in my own books. It was through Discworld I discovered Good Omens, and the incomparable Neil Gaiman.

This makes me a very sad panda, indeed.

1. Draft 30K/Month

QUEST IN PROGRESS.

Power of Three #1: 11,858/30,000=40% Complete!

I got all the way through to the Big Reveal this weekend, so my readers are ahead of my characters at this point. The idea is to compel them forward to Kat finding out where her sister is, and going a little crazy trying to get her back. Which, of course, then ramps up to the end fight.

2. Revise Blood & Steam #1

QUEST IN PROGRESS.

I’ve contracted The Pink Hammer for an editing session beginning in April, so I’m hard at work getting my draft up to scratch. I’ve already done one pass, and I’ll do at least two more before the end of the month.

I did decide on some significant rewrites for the first act, however. I started with the sisters quite a bit younger, but for a novella-length work this isn’t really working. So I found my way around a road block, character-wise, to making them the ages they truly need to be so I’m off with the wrenches and hammers to fix this issue, and anything else affected by it.

So I guess the moral of the story is, if you find yourself butting up against a block of some kind, it doesn’t have to stymy you. Just keep writing what you do know, and a resolution will either a) present itself further along in the story, or b) one you finish, you can go back to the block and examine the thing from all angles. But, above all, DON’T STOP WRITING.

3. New Cover Art/Reformatting

This week, I finished the new cover art for Keepers: Origins #2. I still need to get all three reformatted ASAP, now that I’m perma-free all over the place, including Amazon.

Next, I turn my attention to the Waking Muse series.

Okay, fellow ROW-ers, your turn! What was your first Terry Pratchett book? What’s your favorite book memory of him?

 

 

 

Author’s Log: Back In The Saddle (& #ROW80)

1. So I’m back from taking some much needed time off, both online and offline. The hubs and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary by going to see Dracula: Untold, which was okay but not great. Excellent acting and action, but suffered from plot holes and “This movie is clearly a setup for the sequel”-itis. Which means not enough thought was given to investing in the story, which means I wasn’t wholly invested. Also, too much plot moppetry, and the pacing was seriously off. It’s definitely a “leave your brain at the door” action movie. I was really hoping for more of an Impaler story where he becomes Dracula closer to the end, as the catalyst to the final push/battle or even at the end. This was not that movie.

Luke Evans and Charles Dance were sublime, however. There’s a reason Charles Dance makes my favorite Vetinari in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld movies, and of those movies Going Postal is my favorite.

2. I’ve been deep in the rabbit hole that consists of finishing (finally) FALLEN ANGEL. I won’t lie–it’s been a climb and a half, but satisfying in the end. Heist stories are hard, yo. I have a whole new respect for the writers of Leverage. I hope to get the final-ish manuscript to The Pink Hammer for editing by November 15.

3. I’ve also been deep in Final Line Edits (FLE) for BRIGHID’S FLAME, which got turned in on Friday, 11/7. *whew* I got some more review copies of BRIGHID’S MARK out during my Trick or Treat Halloween giveaway, and a couple more followers of my newsletter, which was nice. My Tribe grows apace. *waves at Tribe*

4. Once FALLEN ANGEL is finally in the hawt little hands of The Hammer, it’s time to turn my attention to finishing SEARCHER (rough draft) and MINSTREL’S DAUGHTER (revisions).

5. DRAGON AGE: INQUISITION is coming out on November 18. This makes me Squee! like a thirteen-year-old at a New Kids On The Block concert. (Or, if you’re me, a thirteen-year-old at an Alice Cooper concert.)

We’re in the home stretch now for 2014. So far, I have managed all my goals, but I still have a ways to go. How are you guys doing?

Author’s Log: The End Is Near (& #ROW80)

1. This week is my first significant time from the day job in a year or so. I’m planning to make the most of it.

2. My 12th wedding anniversary is Monday, Oct 27. I will be making Scotch Eggs and Bloody Marys for breakfast, then the D.S. and I are planning to see Dracula: Untold before lunch.

3. I’m eyebrow-deep in finishing a rough draft on FALLEN ANGEL. I do not expect to come up for air until it’s done (excepting for my anniversary, of course–I’ll probably be working on it right through the movie previews). *adjusts snorkel*

4. Yesterday I announced a Halloween week giveaway of BRIGHID’S MARK. If you’re interested, feel free to check it out.

5. Will a week be enough?! o.O

 

 

TRICK OR TREAT GIVEAWAY

Some of you may or may not know my verily awesome engagement story. (Don’t worry–no Jumbo Trons were abused in the making of this story.)

In October 2000, the Tech Monkey and I embarked upon our First Roadtrip as a dating couple. We were following an indie band that used to play at his club Down South on their Unbuckling The Bible Belt tour (yes, it was that kind of band).

In Huntsville, AL there is a Landry’s who employs, quite possibly, the best bartender ever. There, I overdid it on seafood and rum drinks as you can only do on a warm, sunny autumn day on the Gulf Coast. I fell asleep before we ever left the parking lot of Landry’s.

When I woke up, my first bleary sight was of a sign alerting me to the fact that we were approximately 60 miles away from New Orleans. This was not a part of our Itenerary–the band would be playing in Atlanta that night, i.e. in the opposite direction of where we were heading now.

For the record, I’d mentioned in passing once that I’d always wanted to go to New Orleans, either for Halloween or Mardis Gras. It was two days before Halloween, and the Tech Monkey was surprising me with a trip to New Orleans.

Two days later, on Halloween night on Bourbon Street, the Tech Monkey asked me to marry him. Naturally, I said “yes”.

This is my favorite story to tell, and to this day New Orleans is one of my favorite cities in the whole world. The week of Hallween the Tech Monkey and I will celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary.

So, in honor of anniversaries, and New Orleans, and Halloween, I will be giving away free, electronic copies of BRIGHID’S MARK.

There are two ways to snag this Halloween treat–almost as good as a full-sized Snickers in your Trick or Treat loot bag!

1. Join my Speculative Ink newsletter. (It’s worth noting that I only use this newsletter to announce newsworthy items, new books or to give books away–you will not, nor will you ever be, Spammed by me.)

2. Use the handy-dandy Contact Form at the bottom of this post.

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!!

If you’re into Double Trouble (I know I am), then check it: If you leave an honest review for BRIGHID’S MARK at your favorite online book place, send me the link and I will respond with not only my profusive (not to mention vaguely creepy) thanks, but with an Advance Reader Copy of BRIGHID’S FLAME when it becomes available.

This Giveaway is good starting today, October 24, until All Saint’s Day (November 1).

Let the Halloween Shenanigans commence! :-D

[contact-form]

 

Author’s Log: Saving The Cat (& #ROW80)

So I finally broke down and bought a copy of Blake Snyder’s Save The Cat. And, like many others, I am SO glad I did. I wasn’t two chapters in before it hit me between the eyes that I needed a new opening scene for FALLEN ANGEL.

I ended up with a new opening chapter. In a matter of hours.

So, yeah. That happened.

It occured to me, during my week-long thinky think last week that what had me stymied was the fact that what my heroine thought she wanted wasn’t what she REALLY she wanted.

This is not the character motivation you are looking for.

It all kind of came together for me in a rush, and all because I was lacking a scene Snyder refers to as the Save The Cat scene, wherein you show your main character doing something Pretty Damn Cool. Something that attaches your audience to them like a toddler with a ginormous rainbow lollipop on a hot day. In other words you make them sticky.

Ew.

Anyway, I think of it as the scene where you show they have a heart as well as a spine. I write a lot of Action & Adventure (Keepers of the Flame is, basically, Highlander in an apocalyptic setting, starring female action heroes). But the same holds true for romance.

I’m not starting over entirely on FALLEN ANGEL–I can still use quite a lot of what I’ve already got–but now my heroine is more sympathetic, and has an added layer of wanting to shoot for. This also solves my issue with how she can possibly fall in love with my hero, despite him being something of a criminal (no matter how gorgeous).

And yet, I still managed to add an extra layer of complication between them as well. So things seem to be solidifying nicely on that front. The haze is clearing, and I’m back to the typeity-typeity.

Oh, hey, look–goals!

1. Finish Drafting FALLEN ANGEL (Waking Muse #3): In Progress.

Working on mid-draft reorganization and rewrites. I should have a better idea of what I’ve got in a few days, and then it’s off to the finish line.

2. Complete Post-Production on Keepers of the Flame #4: In Progress.

My final, almost-submission draft is with Team BETA. I’ve got coverycopy and a 2-3 page synopsis to work on yet, but it should be done by the end of the month, once drafting of FALLEN ANGEL is complete.

Okay, fellow ROWers–how’s your typeity-typeity coming along?

Author’s Log: Necronomicon And Other Updates (& #ROW80)

So last weekend the Tech Monkey attended Necronomicon horror and dark fantasy convention here in town, and a modest amount of action and adventure was had by all. It was SUCH a nice change from the now mainstream (and slightly overblown) Comic Con. It reminded me a lot of the Gen Con gaming convention we went to every year up north, before Wizards of the Coast took over and over-corporated it before leaving town altogether. It was small, and friendly, and we got to talk to some really cool people and put our con budget where it would do the most good.

We even met my fellow Samhain author Lucienne Diver and her hubs, and picked up a couple of her books, as well as a very pretty necklace she made.

(If you haven’t checked out her Vamped series yet, you totally need to. It’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Clueless. It’s fast-paced, it’s funny, and it’s fun. Imagine of Cordelia got turned into a vampire at her high school prom…by the president of the chess club-turned-hottie.)

During the week I’ve been plugging away at my October goals. The excitment is building because I can feel myself in the home stretch. I’m sure you know the feeling–you’ve just gotten through the second plot point of a draft and only have a quarter of the way to go, which usually turns into a mad dash for The End so you can GET IT DONE. At least, that’s how it is for me.

I got another round of revisions in to Editor Awesome on BRIGHID’S FLAME (Keepers of the Flame #3), due for release in March 2015. Next up is Final Line Edits, courtesy of Editor Eagle-Eye. As always, I find I learn the most about craft from my editorial notes–useful things I can then carry over into future projects.

Let’s go to the Quest Log to see how we’re doing:

1. Finish rough draft of FALLEN ANGEL (Waking Muse #3): In Progress.

Admittedly not a lot of words drafted on this one this week, but progress was still had. I keep finding myself trying to make things overly clever or complicated in regards to the heist stuff (I love a good heist), and I’ve found I did a bang-up job painting my hero into a corner when it comes to the romance angle–so much so, I’m not sure how I’m going to resolve it. How the hell is my heroine expected to fall in love with him? Yeesh.

So this week has been all about having a good, hard think over where my story is going (or, at least, where it thinks it’s going). I’ll let you know how it turns out.

2. Finish revisions of Keepers #4: QUEST COMPLETED!

My BETA draft is off to my ravenous crew, and now I can turn my attention to cover copy (used for my cover letter to Editor Awesome–yes, even though I have an official Acquisitions Editor, I still have to follow my publisher’s submission guidelines), and my 2-3 page synopsis.

Your turn, guys–how’s your Quest Log looking so far?

 

 

Author’s Log: Looking Ahead To The End Game (& #ROW80)

So here we are, in the final quarter of 2014 and the final round of A Round of Words in Eighty Days. October, as it happens, is also the beginning of the holiday season in the Monkey household. Our anniversary is on the 27th, which is quickly followed by Halloween, and then it’s all downhill from there until New Year’s.

First, what do I have to accomplish in the next three months? I bring you The Statement of The Goals!

1. Finish FALLEN ANGEL (Waking Muse #3). Release date is set for December 24 on this one, and there’s still quite a lot of work to be done.

2. Finish a rough draft of SEARCHER (Fantasy Novel). 2/3 Complete on this one. 30K to go.

3. Finish revisions on THE MINSTREL’S DAUGHTER (Fantasy Novel). Also 2/3 Complete on this one, 30K to go. I go out on submission January 2015. W00T!!

Bonus Goals:

1. Begin Sooper Sekrit Projeckt. This is the unexpected Plot Bunny that smacked me between the eyes just recently. Official Plotting has already begun, mainly because I just can’t help myself.

2. Begin Keepers: Origins #3. I’m looking to get Tara’s origin story out about a month prior to the release of BRIGHID’S FLAME on 3/15/2015.

3. Submit Keepers #4 To Editor Awesome. I’m looking at a November date on this one.

What This Means For October:

1. Finish drafting FALLEN ANGEL. So…close… *gasp* I plan on getting this to The Hammer for editing in November.

2. Finish revisions and post-production on Keepers #4. Once I feel like I’ve got this polished to within an inch of its life, it’s off to BETA readers for their imput. While that’s going on, I’ll work on my cover copy and 2-3 synopsis per my publisher’s submission guidelines.

I’m still a bit behind on my Production Schedule, but that’s okay–I left myself plenty of room to work at the end of the year in case of overflow, and I’ve got some time off coming up.

Your turn! How do you plan on finishing up 2014?

Not Just A Fight, But A Conflict (#IWSG)

I love writing action scenes.

Love them. Loooooooove them.

Got swords? Guns? Mad Ninja Skillz? I’m all over it.

On a side note, I pity the intruder who breaks into our house, because they will be met by any number of firearms and melee bringers of stabby and/or smashy death, as well as some very seriously pissed off homeowners. And if you bleed on my tile floors, I will hit you again.

Zombie apocalypse? Bring. It. On.

I think even my husband’s a little afraid of how intense I am regarding this subject. Anyway.

My characters know Kung-Fu.

But the best fights, the most epically epic of them all, aren’t just fights. They’re also conflicts.

Lemme ‘splain.

Men express romance with action. I’m not just talking about romantic love. I’m also talking about things like nobility, destiny, fighting the good fight and stopping the world blowing up every other week. Some women do, too.

At the same time a fight scene is going on, it’s not really about the fighting. It’s a juxtaposition of internal conflict with the character’s self and external conflict with the bad guy (or guys) in question.

And when you write something like Keepers of the Flame (think Highlander in an apocalyptic setting, starring female action heroes), this is something it’s imperative to bone up on. My Keepers are pretty bad-ass and action-oriented, and they’re usually fighting something in themselves as well as their opponents, because their greatest power comes from the act of sacrifice.

Here are some of my favorites that illustrate this point about a fight also being a conflict:

The Matrix: Neo’s end game fight with Agent Smith—Neo has to accept (and embrace) something about himself he hasn’t been willing to up to this point in order to win the day. It is only through death that he is reborn.

Equilibrium: John Preston accepts the need to sacrifice himself in the attempt to destroy the world that has gone from comfortable and familiar to unravelling on him, thread by thread, throughout the course of the movie. When he does accept his own death, and embraces it, he becomes that much more powerful.

The Hobbit: Despite Peter Jackson’s signature, overly long, slow-motion shots between the White Orc and Thorin, this is an epic conflict of the ages, right up there with Ahab and Moby Dick. This is one of those “We’re such hard-core enemies we may as well be allies in another life” relationships that borders on bromance. These guys bring the “epic” to “epic struggle”.

Thor: I love the first Thor movie, mainly because Kenneth Brannagh directed it, and as such it is so chock-a-block with Shakespearian awesome that it makes my wittle theatre-geek heart go thumpa-thumpa. In order for Thor to gain everything he’s lost, including his godhood, he has to sacrifice himself in battle. And the ongoing brotherly struggle with Loki (“He’s adopted”) is so full of conflict win it deserves its own master’s thesis.

Leverage: Throughout the entire series, Eliot is the bad-ass with the heart of gold. He hates guns. Doesn’t need ‘em, doesn’t want ‘em, makes a point of releasing the clip from every bad guy gun he can find after he’s concussed them all with his bare hands. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know how to use them–quite the opposite. For Eliot, guns open the direct line to his dark side. In one epic scene (Ssn 4, I think), Eliot sacrifices everything to arm himself with a couple of pistols, Tomb Raider style, and in one gorgeous, balletic shot, wipes out a whole bevy of bad guys. It is heart-breaking and beautiful and terrifying all at once.

So there you have it. It’s not just about the flying fists of doom, or clashing swords, or wildly firing guns. It’s not even about Kung-Fu (crazy-talk, I know).

A really good fight scene—whether it’s just a heated argument between two characters or an epic battle scene of Mordorish proportions—encompasses both the internal and external conflict to ground your reader on the edge of their seat.

What are some of your favorite fight scenes?

Author’s Log: September and Quarter-End Wrap Up

I’m a little weird (okay–A LOT weird) in that my day job consists of more than a little Forensic Accountantcy, and thus beating back the twin evils of Fuzzy Logic and Mathemagics Gone Awry (or, in worst case scenarios, Black). What this means is that my perspective on the business of writing is more than a little skewed, because my day job entails dealing with people who have built their own businesses, and I am the Keeper of the Payroll for certain product types wherein things aren’t always clear.

This also means that I tend to think of my writing business in the scope of production periods, which is how I organize juggling multiple projects. Having set goals (and thus reader expectations) means money in the long run. One of my main, overeaching goals is to release something new at least every ninety days.

So, in my mind, we are not only coming up on the end of September, but the end of the third quarter of the year. Let’s recap to see what I’ve accomplished in the last three months:

1. Act II of SEARCHER (fantasy novel)–Drafting Completed.

2. HEARTH & HOME (Waking Muse 2)–Completed and Released.

3. FALLEN ANGEL (Waking Muse 3)–Pre-Production completed, Drafting in Progress.

4. Act II of THE MINSTREL’S DAUGHTER (fantasy novel)–Revisions Completed.

5. BRIGHID’S FLAME (Keepers of the Flame #3)–Contracted by Samhain Publishing, Currently in Round 2 of Edits.

6. TARA (Keepers: Origins 3)–Pre-Production Completed.

7. NEWSLETTER LAUNCH–Completed.

So not bad, all things considering. Here’s what I have left to cleanup, as I’m about week behind in my goals at this point:

1. FALLEN ANGEL (Waking Muse #3)–Complete a rough draft. Drafting has been slow going, but not because I don’t know what to write. It’s been a time/energy thing (oh, hey Life–I remember you! Now get out of my way). I expect to do some catching up over the weekend and next week, so I’m not too bad off.

2. BRIGHID’S FLAME (Waking Muse #3)–Round 2 Edits. I just received the second round of edits from Editor Awesome a couple of days ago, so that’s what I’m banging out this weekend, as they’re due on Wednesday, 10/1.

3. Keepers of the Flame #4: Complete Round 1 Revisions. Also slow going, again due to Life. (The downside to being a hybrid author–when you have a legal contract with an honest-to-goodness Publisher, and they send you edits, etc, you drop EVERYTHING, including eating and possibly breathing and maybe even booze if you want to get crazy, and you GET THE JOB DONE.) Again, I plan some serious catchup in the coming week.

It’s not the end of the world if I’m a week or so behind, since I’ll be taking the last week of October off at the day job in honor of my 12th wedding anniversary and Halloween.

So far, the every-ninety-day-release plan seems to be working well. This means I have a production cycle of about six months, which ensures I have time to tackle multiple projects and get done All The Things without feeling like I’m up against a wall with guns a-blazing.

Next week, I’ll go into looking ahead to the next month and quarter, and what I anticipate the final stretch of 2014 will be like. :-)