Pools are Open, So It's Summer
June first is summer, I don’t care what anybody says. It’s the first month that schools are let out, it’s when neighbors bring out their plastic pools and sprinklers, it’s when my lawn becomes a swaying, yellow sea of dandelions. It’s summer.
Which means, as usual, I’m already behind.
But! As NOT usual: I’m not behind by much, compared to my revised calendar of about a month ago. Compared to my original calendar of January this year, or January two years ago…well, that’s a different story, and a boring one, so let’s leave it in the past, and take a look at what I’m currently working on now.
Romance Series Update: Books 1 and 2 are being queried, and agents are reading the full manuscripts for both. My brilliant and talented editor gave me notes on Book 3, and I should have beta readers’ notes by June 10th, at which time I’ll start the next round of edits on it. I’ve given myself almost two weeks for revisions, which in theory should be enough time. If it isn’t, no worries, since the three following weeks I’ve booked myself with “Flexible to Finish,” which just means I can use that time to catch up on either of the two projects I’m actively working on right now.
Poetry Collections Update: These four new poetry collections are the second project I’m working on. Let’s use their initials. First up is FTR, which I’ve been trying to publish since just after the first and most recent collection I published NINE YEARS AGO. Damn. The good news is that it didn’t need much editing, and the next step is formatting. Next is AYWAS, my pandemic poems, also ready for formatting. Then FF, full of form poems and including some previously published ones. I need to write more for this one, then edit all of it, then format, etc, and same with the last collection, TBU—all love poems, many of which are unhinged. I gave myself permission to be as wild and violent as I could with these, as long as they’re not cringe. “Unhinged but not cringe” is my motto.
Besides formatting for publishing, I need to get covers for these. I’ll have to hire someone or learn Canva real quick. I want them all to match, and I’ll be re-releasing my first collection, The White Stairs, with a new and matching cover a few weeks before FTR. I expect all this publishing to start mid-Sept, with FTR the first week of October and the rest of them monthly after that. I need that time to do cover work and figure out the damn formatting (as I told my editor recently, I’m in a constant battle with technology, and formatting is like 70% of it). But don’t worry! You’ll be the first to know when they’re available for purchase!
Next Series Update: I have an idea for my next contemporary romance series, already started brainstorming, and have the main characters and loose plot ready to go for its book 1. When I get back from Scandinavia in August, I have a few days of outlining, then I’m jumping right into a Draft Block until mid-September. Draft Block is when I block off six whole weeks to just word-dump a rough draft. It’s like if NaNoWriMo were 50% longer but I have to write 100% more words.
Other Writing Updates: I’ve been outlining a homebrew campaign for Free League’s Tales from the Loop. I love the game mechanics, and the sci-fi aspect is perfect for the story I want to tell. Once I started writing it, I realized it’s going to end up being eight or nine mini-campaigns leading to one long, overarching story, and I need more than one day to write it. In fact, with the science fiction stuff, I wouldn’t be surprised if it took a lot longer. I think it’ll be a lot of fun. I’m working on this whenever I have a few spare hours.
Life Updates: Boone was in the hospital for the last blog post, and he’s feeling sort of about the same. He has heart disease and is on a bunch of meds to stave off heart failure, but he was in for a new GI issue that nobody could figure out. Since he’s been home, we updated his meds, but now he refuses to eat wet food at all (even treats, even fish), so I have to mix his crushed meds with a little bit of fish oil and squirt it into his mouth with a syringe. He’s eating dry food though, which is something, though that makes him drink more water than the rest of the cats combined.
And because one actively sick cat isn’t enough, we’ve taken in our extended family’s cat, Phoebe, because she had an eye issue, needed a lot of care, and couldn’t be around other cats. Her problem has turned out to be chronic, though, so she’ll be living with us from now on. We call her Poopsmith due to an incident when she was a kitten that I’m sure you don’t need explained.
Between now and the next update, I SHOULD be finished with Book 3 edits, have two poetry collections basically ready to publish, and have all my poetry covers or at least have hired someone to make them.
I’m so good at being realistic about my projects.