How did I do on the September goals?
Publish The Chaos Connection (Jackpot Drift #2). This is a fairly easy one. I need to write the acknowledgements and update the other back matter, but once it comes back from the final proof, it will take less than an hour to format. Then it’s just a matter of loading it everywhere.Yes!Finish the first draft of the cozy. Penelope Standing #3 doesn’t have a title yet (Death Digs a Garden? Death Sniffs a Rose?), but I think I’m about 15-20k away from having the initial draft finished.Yes! It is ready for a final round of edits before being sent off to the proofreader.- Redo the keywords for the books already published. One book done. I learned a lot (and hopefully most of what I learned is correct…) so the rest should be easier.
Send the Dragon Freehold episodes that are already written off to be proofread and load them into Vella.Loaded & scheduled episodes to last almost until the end of November.Outline the next Jackpot Drift novel. I’m still working on figuring out an outlining technique that works for me, but planning the serial has helped with that. I have faith that this may get easier someday.I have an outline, but it still needs more work. I added something to it yesterday that made it more interesting and exciting and I can’t wait to write this book.
I also wrote most of a Penelope Standing Christmas novella, which I hadn’t even planned on last month. (Have I mentioned how much trouble I have sticking to plans? Because I do…) And I wrote a Penelope Standing short story that will go out to my newsletter subscribers this month. (Have you subscribed? It’s free!)
Anyhow, I am giving myself an A for all the work I got done, even if some of it wasn’t on the plan.
October Goals
- Do the read-aloud and grammar-checking pass of Penelope Standing #3 (Title: Death Sniffs a Rose, unless I change it), and send it off for proofreading.
- Get at least another six episodes of Dragon Freehold edited, proofread, and loaded so I don’t have to worry about that during November. (I have another 14 already written, so this shouldn’t be too hard.)
- Firm up the Jackpot Drift #3 outline and start drafting. I’ll be using 50k of that as my NaNoWriMo novel, but it should end up around 80k and it needs to be ready to send to my critique group on the 9th of December. So… Doing the math on that, I should probably be about 20k into the book before November starts.
- Work on the outline for the prequel to the next series — it’s set in current times, except moving portals (“curtains”) open semi-randomly and allow passage to alternate versions of earth — until they disappear again. The main character is a veterinarian, dealing with new species and the changes that come when society is disrupted in this way. Anyhow, it will be a ton of fun to rewrite this series and get it out there, but I also need to change a whole lot.
- Redo the keywords on the remaining books.
- Send out the newsletter with the cozy short story.
- Write another Jackpot Drift short story as a newsletter bonus.
- Finish up the Penelope Standing Christmas novella (Death Trims the Tree) and send it to my critique partners.
Obligatory Pet Picture
Whew, that seems like a huge list. I’m going to take a break with this handsome fellow.
