M.G. Herron's Blog, page 27

Bogged Down with Perspective

It’s Jan. 17th, so time to fess up.

I’m at 87% complete onTales of the Republic, which means I missed the Jan.15 deadline I set for myself. It’stwo days past now and I still have about 11k words left tofinish the book.

Now, considering where I was a month ago, and how impossible that deadline seemed, that’s still incredible progress. Leaps and bounds beyond what I was doing before.It’s important to keep that perspective in mind.

However, I readily admit that itbothers the hell out ofme to mi...

The Last Quarter

I come to you 8 days from my deadline on Tales. I’m at 73.5% complete as of my last reckoning, which means I’m nearly in the final quarter.

And things are getting hard.The pressure is on. The anxiety is building.

The last 2 parts are the least polished out of the whole book, and missing the most content, which means I not only have to edit and polish the words, but create new content to fill in the gaps—missing scenes, mostly, and a few changes that I can’t seem to avoid making.

I’m still tr...

New Story: The Door Below the Comic Store

The Door Below the Comic Store is my first new short story of 2017, an adventurous urban fantasy story about a normal boy named Colton and the unusual way he escapes his miserable family life.

The Door Below the Comic Store

How would you react if you found hidden doors in your city that led to other worlds? Worlds of mystery and magic?

While trying to escape the incessant bickering between his mom and his jerk of a stepfather, Colton goes out to meet a friend—and instead, stumbles on a doorwa...

Jan. 3 Writing Update

Judging by the state of my inbox, this is the day when everyone returns to work. Since that means my life will soon become very full again, and I’llbe even shorter on writing time, I wanted to take this opportunity to mark it: I made massivestrides on Tales of the Republic over the holidays.

I’m at about 60% complete on this round of edits now, even having adjusted my target for the manuscript upwards by 5k words, to 85k words total. For me this kind of progress is huge.

The word count adjust...

It’s a New Dawn, It’s a New Day

Since the big quitting, I find I don’t quite know what to do with myself.

In the morning, I sit downto write, as usual. That habit has been trained over three years and it’s the most familiar thing in the world.

After a couple pages of editing Tales, I take the dog for a walk. So far, so good. It always feels good to do something active in the morning. If I don’t do any other exercise for the rest of the day, at least I did that.

And when I get back home,my body tenses, readynow forthe flood...

On Quitting

This December I quit a load of things to make more room for writing fiction.

I finally came to accept that Iwasspreading myself too thin. I’ve known it for some time, and worked hard through 2016 trying to juggle all my jobs.

At times, I pulled it off, andit seemed amazing that I could do so much. In other cases, I failed andlet people down.

And sometimes—more often than I wantto admit—my stories fell through the cracks. That made me saddest of all.

My commitments were competing with each ot...

Christmas Eve Writing Update

Whew, a lot of good stuff has happened since I last gave you a writing update.

First of all, “End of the World” has doneall right for it being the first piece of fiction I’ve published in several months.I had zero expectations, so I can’t be disappointed. I’msimply happy it was well-receivedby those who have read it, and continues to sell a bit.

But my focus has been on what’s next. Edits for my next fantasy story, “The Door Below the Comic Store” came back, and I’ve already gone through thos...

The Curmudgeon

I’ll be the first to admit that there’s a part of me that resists everything.

This is thepart of me that scoffs, calls you a liar, hates being around people.

He thinks—no, not just thinks, this part of me actually believes that Valentine’s Day and Christmas have become nothing more than trumped up commercialized gimmicks designed to syphon money from hispockets and fill peoplewith material greed.

He uses the holiday season not to give, but to decimate himself, cut the fat, reevaluate his lif...

Audiobook Recommendation: The Name of the Wind

I just finished listening to The Name of the Windon Audible— what a lyrical, beautiful book that is. Rothfuss’s metaphors and similes aremusic to my ears.

This was my second read through—I read the paperback last fall, and decided I needed to really take my time and listen this time around.

I was listening with my writer’s ear—but Rothfuss’s work has that magic. Even when I’m trying to study the story, I can’t helped but get sucked into it.

The best bit:Siaru accents, like loud, sarcastic Rus...

The Smell of Cut Grass

Interior book designismeditative in a way that’s hard to explain. Repetitive yetsatisfying, like mowing the lawn. Ahh, the smell of cut grass! Theway the afternoonsun reflects off the even rows behind me.

But formatting books isbetter than mowing the lawn becauseI don’t have to contend with gasoline and hot metal, and there’s no grass toitch where my shoes rub against myankles.

The design processclears mymind. I pop myheadphones in and get lostputting thingsto rights. Resize a photo there. M...