Dribs & Drabs ...

OK. So it's been awhile - almost two full months. Sorry about that. You should have said something.

Anyway - I'm back. And feeling ... bleh. Full blown Meh. Not sure why. Tummy issues certainly contribute. As does a pervading feeling of weariness. Not exhaustion - that would really suck. Just tired, most of the time. Which, as you know, is a major factor in why my productivity sucks.

The other day I inquired of the fb SF&F Writers Group about whether anyone else feels anxiety over the current binge mentality of readers. And got some interesting responses. The crux of which is that, particularly with a first book, that if it's part of a series, you really need the rest of it published - or at least written - to get any traction.

Which also got me realizing how LONG BLP has been in production, writing wise. 41 years. Seriously. I was around 18 when I started it, and now I'm 59. Sure - alot has been going on in these 40+ years - went to Clarion, got married, had 3 kids, worked at a variety of different jobs, even went to Uni for a few years. And in the meantime, story ideas kept popping in to say Hi, and asking for some Me time. And BLP kept being pushed to the back burner. I'd trot it out every now and then to work on it some more. There was the great transition to Word, which started around then chapter 6. I even submitted a chapter for perusual to the local Writers Guild for some promotion or contest they were doing. When I started getting serious again with it, I paid my youngest to transcribe the hand-typed early chapters into Word, so I could amalgamate them with what was already there. She even gave me some story advice about it, noting that it felt very dated. I found a cover artist who has done an awesome job of interpreting my 40 year old vision for the cover. And I've sent it to a professional editor, who has completed her task of line editing. In the meantime, I've also worked on LOTS of those other stories, including finishing one and starting a prequel to that, which is about a third of the way in.

But it has occured to me that if I don't get off my keister and WORK on it, I'll never get to working on Book 2 and 3 of BLP. And that just won't do. I really want it published, and sold. That professional editor was expensive (and I'm not sure yet if she was worth it. Lovely person, but fantasy really wasn't her thing, and I think she was thrown off her game by things she just didn't click with).

Which brings us to today. Still slept most of the morning away. And now need to head in to work, as I have, well, work to do there. But I have a tenuous desire to GET THINGS DONE. Writing wise. Which means committing to a schedule of writing in the mornings. I really don't have another 40 years to work on this. Probably not even 20. Talk about pressure.

It needs to be done. And definitely sooner, rather than later. So, I'll finish going through the editor's suggestions, and get things moving forwards. And start working on Book the Second.

But, well, uggg.

And that's all for now.