Newsletter - July 12, 2022

We are in the final mile of a marathon for a project at work. Several projects, actually, but I'm more tightly bound to one of them. I'm barely clawing my way through, week to week, day to day... often amazed that the day has wrapped up. I've got a really great group of people to work with, minus one foul individual who adds spice to the story of my life. On the bright side, I hope to use what I've learned from working with said troll in the writing of the fabled elven civil war. When life gives you lemons and all...

Book 4 of The Guardian League has been out for a couple of weeks now. It seems natural to somehow take advantage of the series being complete, but I don't know exactly how. There's got to be some kind of deals or discounts I should be creating, or change in advertising, that I should shift into. Some of you avid devourers of words let me know--what have been your favorite things to see after a series is done?

I talked about crazy detective walls last week. I poked around a little, because I really did need something to help hold my ideas together for the prequel to The Guardian League, and I knew my wife would not let me get away with a literal crazy wall (though my youngest girl would LOOOOOVE it). I tried a few apps, and settled on one called popplet. It has a free option, which is all I'm using for now. Writing this stuff out doesn't help clarify anything--at this point I am not a detective solving a mystery. What it does is free up my mind to consider the next steps. Until I do something to capture my thoughts, my brain keeps tripping up on them, out of some kind of fear that it will forget those pieces. So without SOMETHING, I just rethink the same scenes, the same connections, the same problems, over and over.

popplet screen capture - blurred to preserve mystery

With some of my ideas pinned down, I find I am able to progress others, and my virtual pen moves a little faster than before. Though, admittedly, I still crawl at a snail's pace compared to most authors. Anyone who has similar tools to help them flesh out ideas, let me know--I'll gladly take a look.

o To-Do list for writing last week: