First off, let’s talk about success. No, I’m not about to give you a motivational speech on the true definition of success. I mean, if I was good at motivational speeches, sure, I would definitely consider it, but I’m not. When I say let’s talk about success, what I mean is that working during February was like that scene in the first episode of Alias where Sydney has her teeth pulled out as a torture method. Scene briefly reprised to fit the current situation:
Me, Talking to My Works-in-Progress: “I’m your worst enemy. I’ve got nothing left to lose.”
My Works-in-Progress, Cool and Assessing: “That’s not exactly true. You have your sanity.”
It was a rough month and I have no idea why, so I’m starting off with what I accomplished. In UBER EXCITING NEWS, I got the final edit of the first Nyx novel, Guardian of Chaos, finished, AND I got the first cover draft in. Which means Nyx Fortuna will be hitting the shelves in a couple months, as soon as I finish getting the bonus content worked out and I COULD NOT BE MORE EXCITED. The Nyx books are truly the series of my heart, and I can’t wait for you to meet her.
I also got the final self-edit of the second Nyx book, Guardian of Shadows, off to the content editor. I stalled up until the last minute on sending it off, because the creeping it’s-not-good-enough fear wouldn’t let go of me. My content editor really liked the first Nyx book, and she is an author I truly admire, which naturally means I’m terrified I forgot how to write and she will hate the second book and I will have disappointed Nyx’s first reader.
All of which is to say, if you write books or engage in other creative endeavors and have not yet gone through the nausea-inducing, anxiety-riddled, adrenaline-fueled, paralyzing crucible of a rollercoaster ride that is putting your work out into the world and asking people to pay money for it. . . Well, I’m not going to tell you to NOT do it, because I would still do it over again, but maybe have someone around who doesn’t mind constantly reassuring you of your own self-worth. For the job, I highly recommend SO’s, best friends, horses, cats and dogs, or that alternate version of yourself that lives in the back of your mind. Possibly all of the aforementioned.
On the less successful side of things, I have not yet finished the first draft of Valkyrie’s Call. As of this post, I am at 69k words (it’s projected finished at 85k) and the climactic scene is kicking my ass. I have no idea why. I’ve had this scene in my head since I first started writing the book. I was eager to get to it. But four days in a row I opened Scrivener, stared at it for an hour, during which I maybe wrote one sentence, and gave up and went to do something productive. I had really, really wanted to finish the book before this blog post went out, and was refusing to admit defeat, which is why the post is later than usual for the month. I finally admitted defeated, so here I am.
Naturally, since I’m having so much trouble with Valkyrie’s Call, Meredith’s book, Truthfinder’s Promise, saw fit to info-dump its entire plot-line into my head. Prior to this, I really had no idea what Meredith’s book was about. I am not an outline writer by nature, so the fact hadn’t bothered me. I knew what Meredith was about, and I knew the rest would come to me in time. Apparently, in time meant the story flaunting itself enticingly before me while I struggle to get Valkyrie to annihilate someone in an end-battle scene. I mean, really, who would have thought writing Valkyrie annihilating people would be difficult?
The secret New Shiny project is also coming along apace, up to 30K now, though I dropped it for a week or so because I was trying to force myself to finish Valkyrie’s Call. It’s still a side project though, so everything else takes precedence over it. Everything else being, once VC is finished, it’s time to write the third Nyx book, and then Truthfinder’s Promise.
All in all, nothing too terribly exciting going on here in writer life, just the ordinary sexy of the daily grind. I promise a cover reveal of Guardian of Chaos once I get the final edited version back. I love love love love LOVE it, and hope you will too. Take care of yourselves out there.