Blogging Takes a Back Seat…
The tenth of May had to arrive before I realized that I had not yet written a blog post this month. Several reasons for this, some of which I’ve mentioned here previously.
First, my priority has been a science fiction novel that has seen sporadic progress since 2016. It became one of those projects I worked in between writing a novella, editing two anthologies, and writing about eight or nine short stories. Over the past month, I’ve been focusing more of my writing time on the novel, rewriting parts of the outline and troubleshooting problems in the pacing and plot of the first draft, which is only about 70% finished. Truth be told, since writing the outline and the first eleven chapters over the past two years, I didn’t like where the story was going. Better ideas developed during my time away from the project, but now I’m back on track.
On top of this, I recently received gorgeous cover art for the third volume of a speculative fiction series that I created and edited for Firebringer Press. The Middle of Eternity anthologies, as mentioned here many times, began in 2014 with Somewhere in the Middle of Eternity and continued in 2016 with Elsewhere in the Middle of Eternity. Each book offers over a dozen stories in the SF, fantasy, and paranormal genres written mostly by emerging writers. For some, this series marks the first publication in their careers. That was my goal when I pitched the idea to Firebringer Press. Fortunately, Firebringer is owned by fellow scribe Steven H. Wilson who has shown much generosity in helping creatives find an outlet for their work.
The next book, Meanwhile in the Middle of Eternity will probably hit the market in 2019 since my publisher and I are planning to release a “double-novella” later this year in the format of the old ACE doubles from the 1950s through there 1970s. Read one story, flip the book over to read the other. I just recorded the Kickstarter video for this in mid-April. I hope to see the campaign go live later this month.
Of course, now that spring has decided to make an appearance in my part of the country, lawn work and spring cleaning have been consuming what time I might have used for promotion and blogging. Most of the heavy work is done, but there are a few home improvement projects on the horizon this summer… as always.
So blogging might be sporadic over the next few months. I have another Kickstarter video to record for Meanwhile in the Middle of Eternity and I hope to finish the first draft of my SF novel by September at the latest so that when I attend the Mindful Writers Retreat in October, I can start hammering away at the second draft.
As they say, though, if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.
