It’s a busy week for me.
We had relatives visiting this past weekend — including a niece who ran a half marathon through one half of our beautiful Saguaro National Park — and next weekend, I’m off to California to run in a charity 8K. That necessarily means I’m squeezing five days of my day job into three, while also trying to continue moving forward on novels that are in various stages of completion. I feel a bit like a circus jugglers, albeit one that may have a few too many oranges in the air at the moment.
Being busy isn’t an unusual thing for me. In my IT field, I tend to have to juggle multiple priorities all competing for my attention; over the years, I’ve become better able to gauge how long certain activities are going to take, and as a consequence, adjust where I can to try and meet those intractable deadlines. I try to keep to an informal set of deadlines for my writing, too; partly that’s to ensure I continue to provide fresh content to my readers, but it’s also incredibly motivating to work toward a particular release date.
I’m cognizant of just how much time I can allocate to writing, so having realistic deadlines helps me adjust my own expectations in terms of what I can honestly produce each year for my various series. Since I’m not a formulaic writer — and I’m obsessed with creating quality stories that you can sink your teeth into — it probably takes me longer than authors in other genres to complete each new novel.
That being said, so far this has been a very productive year. I just completed the first draft of Buried this week, book six in the Sean Colbeth Investigates series. I’ll set that aside for a bit and then begin the process of editing later this summer; the story turned out differently than I expected but I really like the direction it took. Sean has been growing quite a bit over his last few books, and this one took him another step further; it also is the first book where he really is fully operating on his own without the ability to lean on Vasily. We learn quite a bit about one of the secondary characters in this story, too — and perhaps more than we wanted to about Suzanne, Sean’s girlfriend. (And that’s all I’m going to say on that for now.)
Focus is now the (ahem) focus of my attention for the next few weeks. With a planned May release date, there is work to be done incorporating suggestions from my beta readers and then completing the final edit of the manuscript. I’d originally thought I could move the release date up a bit, but my schedule just doesn’t seem able to accommodate that. However, I think it will be worth the wait — this next chapter in Vasily’s life was a fun story to write, even if it did include a maniacal serial killer (was that a spoiler?).
My next furious period of writing will come in April during Camp NaNoWriMo. I’ve got two possible ideas in contention, one of which is completing the mystery novel I started back in November based in part on Mesoamerican mythology. I’m somewhat ashamed to admit that I put it aside after writing just a little over half of the story; at the time, I wasn’t certain that I liked what I had created, but now, a few months removed, when I re-read the manuscript I’m finding myself intrigued enough to want to dive back in. Like I said last year, I love Sean and Vasily, but there is this strange ache in my writer’s soul to create a third series that will stand side-by-side with my original heroes. If I don’t go that route, I have another Vasily story in the back of my head that is just begging to be written.
I’m a bit more than a week out from my appearance at the Tucson Festival of Books. My excitement for being selected has given way — partly — to intense preparation required for such an event, including ensuring I have materials available for anyone who swings by for a visit. While I have absolutely no idea what to expect, I am genuinely looking forward to meeting readers in person and getting the chance to interact. The event is one of my favorites (and has been for a long time), so I hope if you are in Tucson, you’ll have a chance to experience one of the premier book festivals in the country.
Be sure to say “hi” if you happen to be close to the Indie Author Pavilion on Saturday between, say, 10 and 1. I’ll be the guy sitting there with a goofy smile trying to absorb the moment…