Almost done Marching

Once again I find myself with pictures that I’m not allowed to share. My oldest girl, 15 years old, dressed up in a sleek blue gown, accepting the “Most Persistent” award at her basketball banquet (persistence is one of the most valuable traits a person can have, in my opinion). My middle daughter at her dance competition. But, alas, they prefer I not share pics.

We return to the office at my day job this week. I went in Friday of last week to scout it out, and was surprised to find how little had changed in the two-ish years I'd been working from home. They'd repainted the walls, but I found my old coffee cup still sitting at the mobile station where I'd left it when we departed back in... 2020? I can't even remember the date of the last time I'd been there. I did take a pic of that, but I filtered it b/c I left some info I shouldn't have on the desk.

One other funny thing. I usually write in the mornings, before work, sitting out on my porch in the pre-dawn darkness. One morning this week, I recorded a bird, who I assumed was trying for the theme song from Hunger Games. (Sorry for the noise... a Farm to Market road runs behind our house.)

This week, my work will overrun/flatten my writing time. I'm carving out the time for this newsletter, but I don't know that I'll find more time to write this week. We (day job "we") have a quarterly review that will take up most/all of my mornings. So for the first time in a year, I'm not committing to any writing goals. That's kind of sad, but I'm also hoping my time doesn't prove as restricted as I fear.

I have another odd character to show off this week, in sharp contrast to the goblins from last week. This guy has inched into the story since Book 2, but his role becomes larger in Book 4. And the pic gives me an idea about another character that would be fun to create in drawn form, and I might be able to do myself.

The beta reading of Book 4 has not kicked off yet, but that's still fine, schedule-wise. We picked up someone with experience in beta feedback, so the pause is worth it. I've inched forward with grammar and style edits, knowing I might have to chuck them. I also took a first pass at rewriting the prologue for a new series. I'm not ready to put it out there for everyone, but I'll throw it into the beta read.

I want to share the experience that excited me the most in regards to writing this week. I'd taken some bookmarks to a B&N for them to hand out. (Oh, side note--I need to add a QR code to my bookmarks. Yeah, I keep learning.) In a commons area of the shopping center they had a farmer's market, and one of the booths housed an Indie author at pretty much the same stage of his writing career as me, but who appeared to be much more successful. He took a few minutes to talk me through the farmer's market setup, and I plan to try the same.

o To-Do list for writing last week:

~~Email updates~~
~~Grammatical and Style edits for Book 4 - through chapter 42.~~
~~Update fonts for specific sections of Book 4 (can't say more without some potential spoilers leaking in).~~
Submit order for cover - we had a hiccup in our negotiations, which I'd believed to be done. Straightened out now.

o To-Do list for writing this week: