First Quarter Finish

Oh, boy, it’s been a busy, BUSY first three months of the year. The day job saw me take on several projects, an important hiring committee, and join a task force. There’s been a time-consuming volunteer project for my professional organization and a conference I traveled to Michigan for. And after avoiding it like the plague, COVID-19 finally got me. I was down for a week with what amounted to a really bad flu but I’m glad I’ve had all the shots that mitigated it to that.

Hi, I’m Jason and I write science fiction stories that I hope you’ll like. Welcome.

Pole Shift

The last part of that sequence above is Planet Comicon in Kansas City just happened. This is a now HUGE show for the Midwest and KC in particular. The first night saw it competing with a WWE event basically next door, the end of spring break week for local school systems, a cold St. Patrick’s Day parade, and two years of trying to get ‘back to normal.’

And boy did Planet get back to normal and beyond this weekend. Wow. Record sales for Saturday following a Friday the like I’ve not seen since before the pandemic. Not only that, the cosplay was so varied and wide that it was hard to spot a trend except that there were far fewer Harley Quinns and Deadpools than in recent years.

Universe BJerry and Cullen of The Worst Comic Podcast Ever at the Hero Initiative booth with me at Planet Comicon in Kansas City 2023.

I did not table this year at Planet because I didn’t have any new books to hawk and as noted above I had been busier than normal heading into it. So it was fun to just buy a weekend pass and be a tourist. I saw a number of the cohort I run with at this show and missed some others. A couple of conversations inspired me to rethink something I’d considered a number of times in the last year. It’s cool to give things a project or code name, so I’m going to call this thing The Dodge Activity which has almost nothing to do with what it is.

As is usual at the beginning of any undertaking, I’m super-excited. This is different than most things, though, and feels an awful lot like when I knew THE ENVOY was really working. I’m sure this is going to carry through because I’ve already got a lot of information about how it could go wrong. It’s likely I’ll make mistakes along the way but I am confident in a way that tells me this is the right move. I’m going to do this and when I tell you what The Dodge Activity is, I think you’ll agree it’s the right thing for me.

Big Buzz

The update on the above-mentioned story, The Envoy, is that the re-write is at about 75%. I’ve got a bit more clean-up to do before it goes back out to beta readers. I am positive it will be out before summer but having this kind of control is important. Deadlines are self-imposed, but I treat them with respect though I don’t share them with anyone but my wife, and that will apply to all my creative things. I don’t want to promise you all anything I can’t deliver.

Lessons were learned about outlining and not falling too much in love with what you write. Also, the promise you make in the first third has to be followed through in the middle or it’s going to fall apart at the end.

At Capacity

I’m about 65% extrovert and the rest is undeniably introverted and can be overwhelmed. I’m creatively recharged but socially exhausted. I’ve taken a couple of days for myself to reconnect back at home after the marathon of the first quarter of this year. I’m looking forward to dropping back into a regular routine that gives me time to do things around the house, spend time with my wife, and focus on my writing and the things I need to do around that.

Never be afraid to step back and take care of yourself. Drive hard to accomplish the stuff you want because you want it that much, but then take time to breathe. Do something you need to recharge or just rest up so those batteries refill. It’s important. Whatever success I have is because I didn’t give up or just haven’t yet and I don’t intend to. Stubborn, that’s me. If that’s you, too, I understand. We’re in this together.