Monthly Review + Writing Update + Quarterly Goals

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I was actually working today, so I forgot to post around Noon. Back-timing this.

I had a great time at Bento Con last Saturday. I had a really cool conversation about thermodynamics, which I'm really going to look into when I finally get to the sci-fi anthology I've wanted to write. The one thing I love about a local convention like this is the diversity of the people that come to my table. I had older men stop by, one of whom said, "Let me go get my wife, she'd love this," other writers, and teens and 20-somethings, who are the target audience for my book. I took 24 books with me and not only sold 12, but I had my first sale of my illustration cards! That alone excited me, because some man told me to have illustrations on sale when he stopped by at Blue Hen Comic Con the year before last, and when I had them last year, no one was interested. Perhaps by next year, when I have two books to sell, some fans of Book 1 will want the illustrations!


That said: I made it to Part 3 in the sequel! I was so excited to finally get these pivotal scenes I've had in my head for the past few years in the order that they belong. I feel like this part is going to be a little shorter. The first book had 46 chapters. As I'm typing this, I realize I haven't been updating the chapter list to the second book, so...

*Five minutes later*

...I have 30 chapters at the moment, and I'm into the third chapter now. I don't want to drag it out if I don't have to. Maybe ten chapters? We'll see.
On that note, my goal from last quarter was to edit the audiobook and finish this book. I haven't even touched the audiobook. I keep thinking about it, though. I imagined I would have more time while I was on my medical leave of absence, but for the first three of my six weeks, I slept, so as evident in the last section of this post, I didn't write enough to finish the book. I'm getting there, though, and I'll take it. End of the year for sure. I just realized the quarters are off, too. There are five Fridays in October and November, so I'll be posting a goals update on Black Friday. I hope to hear from the cover artist by then, because I would like to have both of the second and third book covers completed before I publish Book 2.

I also stopped reading the short story compilation I was reading. I don't know who taught them how to make an anthology, but they didn't tell them not to include half of a novel. I'm not even joking. It was one half of a novel! That held up my reading goals for sure. So, I jumped into a new book that I actually might do a Weekly Words for next week. It's been a long time since I've done one. We'll see.

So anyway, goals for the next quarter are:

  1. finish Book 2.
  2. At least START editing the audiobook.
  3. Catch up on my annual reading goal.

Wish me luck!

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