Good afternoon, Readers!

Image by Nikolett Emmert from Pixabay ​

I am late getting to this, as yesterday afternoon, while in the middle of a project, the internet just stopped working for four hours and it threw me off my schedule so badly, I kinda just collapsed into a sweaty ball (it was very, very hot) and ceased to function like a proper human being. So I'm snatching a few minutes now to write a blog post about what I often dream about.

My future.

I sometimes get asked the question, "Where do you see yourself in five years." Usually this is at work, where I don't particularly want to answer truthfully. It's a bad look when your answer isn't, "Working my way up the corporate ladder."

But honestly, I don't want to be in an office my whole life. Unless it's my own office, surrounded by bookshelves full of books, a cat or two sleeping beside the keyboard. This office would be in a small-ish cottage-like home in the middle of the woods on a piece of land that has a stream babbling through it. Also on this land, which is large enough to ensure that no neighbours are anywhere near, will be a two-story shed which will be my workshop and art studio. Another building will be my home gym; a place where I can practice all my martial arts when it's raining or snowing out (otherwise, I'd be training outside).

My writing will support me financially, and I will be able to set my own hours, answering to no one but myself... and my editor.

I will also own my own martial arts studio, where I can continue to teach my women's only martial arts classes. Martial arts is the place I turn when I need to take a break. It works the brain, but in a way that is vastly different to my writing, and I really love the people at Wutan Canada. They're very accepting of my weirdness, and that is quite rare. Teaching martial arts has been a unique pleasure, and remains one of my passions.

Nowhere in this dream of mine are the words 'gainfully employed.'

Don't get me wrong. I don't hate my job. I just don't want to be in an office, selling my time when I feel it could be used for things that truly light me up instead.

I want my own house in the woods. My own martial arts studio. And for my writing to fully support my life.

Not a unique dream, to be sure. Well, maybe except for my own personal dojo on my property.

What about you? What dreams stop you in your tracks sometimes? When you envision the future you would like, what is it?

​Let me know!

Good morning, Readers!

Well, I did it again. I was supposed to write up a blog post for last week and failed. I will get there. I will make it a habit, damn it! I just need to get my butt in gear. I'll get there.

I promised writing news, but I'm still gathering the info for the most exciting of that news (for me), but I will tell you what I've been doing in the writing sphere. I haven't been idle, even though I haven't brought out any books in a while.

Thanks for nothing, two moves in two years, Covid, and depression.

BUT, during this time, I was not entirely listless. I did write. Here is where I am in my writing life:

I started and finished a novel called ​The Lioness of Shara Mountain. It was edited and sent off to my first beta reader, who returned it. I let it sit while I finished up another manuscript....

...The second book in the Avalon series I'm writing. I'm still looking for a good title for both the book and the series, but that is neither here nor there. Nevertheless, I finished that manuscript - finally (it's been a couple of years since I started writing that book) - and edited it. Not too long ago, I sent it off to my first beta reader, who I have working really hard this year. Two books in the space of a few months? That's a lot. In any case, Book Two of the Avalon series is currently in phase one of the beta reading/editing process.

That achieved, I returned my attention to The Lioness of Shara Mountain. I edited it and not long ago, sent it off to my second beta reader. I'm still not sure what I'll do with this manuscript. It belongs to the same world as another series I've written, but is a stand alone story. I'm looking at releasing it as a web novel with one of the largest web novel platforms out there in the hopes of capturing a wider audience for my work (and the afore-mentioned series specifically). Chances of being discovered on there are slim to none, but that's not really different for anything I've done in writing sphere.

All the same, I want this book to be at its best so that I don't have to worry about that, at least, when I decide what to do with it. So, The Lioness is currently with my second beta reader, which is phase two of the editing/beta reading process, and I can turn my attention to a different story.

Which I have. At the beginning of last month, one of my favourite publishers ever opened up to unagented submissions for the first time in what feels like more than five years, and I decided to give my favourite story another shot at getting published. This story is a series, so I sent along the first book. Soldier, book one of The Great Man series, is off on submission again. This will be my last attempt to get the series into the hands of a publishing house large enough to offer significant help with marketing etc.

Chances of being accepted are really super slim, and a rejection will leave me more than dejected, but not defeated. If this attempt fails, I will probably slide the book away for a bit, before approaching Renaissance Press, who are my most excellent publishers (and I'd love to keep working with them). There is not guarantee that they will take the book, either. If it so happens that they don't, I will... probably self-publish it. That's an option these days, and while I despise the idea of having to be responsible for the whole publishing process, I despise the idea of this story never being told at all all even more. So.

But as it stands, Soldier is off on submission. I won't have an answer until next year (they said roughly nine months from the end of the submission period (June 30), so I shall have to be patient. Patience is not a strength of mine. In the meantime, I have four more books in the series to rewrite (I've rewritten the first and second). I haven't started on that, though, because I'm currently working on something else.

For the first time ever, I'm attempting to write a stage play. May all the gods look kindly upon this endeavour. I've never written a play before, and it's been a long, long time since I've even read one. I'm completely lost, and not sure what to do whatsoever. Currently, I'm just vomiting words onto the page, trying to describe what I see in my head (because I can see it play in my head). I'm hoping that my mum and dad, both of whom have written plays and been involved in theatre (my dad still is), will be willing to sit with me and help my doctor the manuscript so that it actually reads like the play I'm imagining in my head. I'm excited about the story, and excited about how it might look on stage. I wonder if I'll ever see it performed. That would be unbelievably cool.

This play is actually going to be a gift for someone. There's a story there that a few people know already. But once the play is written and given, I will relate the story more fully. That will not be happening until quite late in the fall/early winter, so you'll just have to wonder how it came about that I was conned into the stress and confusion of attempting to write a stage play.

And that's where I am.

Writing all this, and hearing about another author's accountability process, I have created a new page where I will post what projects I'm working on and where they are in the writing process. If you're interested in following along, you can see it all here.

I will be refining that page probably, but as of now, the process is fairly well represented.

And that's my writing news for you. Hopefully there will be much more and a lot of happy writing news in the near future. Until then, I hope you're all well and safe and working towards your dreams.

Ciao!