Last year was by far my favorite - and most intense - NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) year to date. Because I had completed the six years of NaNo prior, I decided to up the ante and do two complete 50,000 word novel manuscripts, so 100,000 words.
The two novels I did that year were Black Earth: Dark Masquerade, and Black Earth: Bridge to Anaisha - the third and fourth novels in my Black Earth series. Dark Masquerade was published a few months ago, and Bridge to Anaisha will be released (hopefully) next month.
I set Skyrim as my motivation for completing 100,000 words that year. I figured I would either get the game as a Christmas gift or get it via other means, and so I set myself up to be able to play it for a couple days once I did complete NaNo and receive the game, which I did. I actually had this as my desktop wallpaper that year, envisioning my NaNo goal as the slain dragon. What made it even better is the whole Nord getup actually matched the viking theme that NaNo has been encompassing the past few years now.
It was an epic year, and to top it off, I managed to complete the 100,000 (100,084 to be exact) word goal in only 16 days!
So, for the past couple weeks, I've been working on a number of different projects, all of which have been taking up the majority of my 'work' time so I haven't had too much time to network socially. My plan is to get a lot of these things off my plate in the next week so I can get back into the swing of things and start getting more activity rolling in my social networking and on The Crossover Alliance community.
First, I've been completing edits to and reading through Black Earth: Bridge to Anaisha - the fourth and final full-length novel in my Black Earth series. My hope is to release the book next month. This weekend my wife and I will be working on some of the cover design. And, there's a small chance I may change the name of the novel - not sure about that yet, but I'm definitely giving it some serious thought for reasons I may get into if I do decide to change it.
I've also been tinkering with the design of my website and attempting to clean it up a bit, make the Compendium entries a little easier to read and just make it easier to see a lot of my content at a glance. The new and improved site should be up next week - along with Heather Rhodes' profile, which I wanted to put up this week but couldn't because of the design delay.
I also have a new email newsletter to go out, which will match the design of the improved website. The newsletter should be going out toward the end of next week.
Next week I plan to do a small series of posts on the 7 years I've done NaNoWriMo, with a spotlight on each year's novel that I worked on with some details as to the future of those projects - the ones that haven't already become published novels.
All in all, October has been hecka' busy, but productive. Have a great weekend everyone!
For those who are curious what the Compendium is,
it is a (ultimately) massive database that I am building from the
ground up that will house information on any and all things from both my
Black Earth and my Expired Reality
series. Each week, new entries will be added to the Compendium. Right
now, I'm in a blog series exploring the different characters (and
themes) of my Black Earth series, and the majority of released
Compendium entries during this series will be character based.
Next week, I will be taking a break from this blog series to focus some time on edits and cover design to the final book in my Black Earth series, Bridge to Anaisha. I will also be tweaking some of the design of this blog and my main website. The week after next, we'll take a good look at another character from the Black Earth series.
I am almost finished with the edits to Black Earth: Dark Masquerade, and I am happy to announce that the release date for the ebook and paperback versions of the book is set for Wednesday, July 25th of this year. And yes, you read that right, I will be releasing paperback and ebook at the same time. (I know, I still haven't put together the paperback edition of Lost Birth yet, but it's coming!)
Those who have been invited and have agreed to read the book in advance and do reviews on it will receive the digital copy next week. I will also be posting the official cover art - at least for the digital edition - very soon, both here and on my website.
Additionally, the manuscript for Black Earth: Bridge to Anaisha - the fourth and final installment in my Black Earth series - is currently being edited and is expected to be released in the next few months.
Despite the title of this post, none of it is negative. Quite the contrary, really. To begin, I just finished Black Earth: Bridge to Anaisha - the fourth and final book in my edgy Christian speculative fiction series - and sent it off to my editor to see how much of a glutton for grammatical punishment I am. Black Earth: Dark Masquerade - the third book in the series - is currently being edited by her and once it's given back, 98% of my time will be devoted to polishing it and sending it to press as quickly as possible.
Even though the books are out of my hands, for the moment, I still have a plate full of projects that need to be accomplished - cover design, cover copy, marketing graphics, promotional ideas, etc, etc, etc. I am going to be pouring more effort into preparation for the release of these two books than any other book I've ever done.
So there's the dark horizons I am peering out on. The end of my Black Earth series. Bittersweet, but a joyous occasion, because this proves not only to myself, but my fans, that I can accomplish a full series. It's a great feeling of accomplishment!
I'll be posting in the coming weeks in regards to my preparation for the end of this series, including snippets of cover design and a sneak peek into some of my ideas for Black Earth promotion. This Wednesday, I'll be posting the fifth and final Black Earth flash fiction piece.
And this Friday I'll be revealing a lengthy post about my time in the Guild Wars 2 beta this last weekend. To sum it up - I have never been so excited for a game's release than I am for Guild Wars 2. Never!
Enough said for now. I'm off to traverse the Desert of Endless Projects.
I have been waiting - as have many fans have - so incredibly long for this game to come out. I was mostly pleased with the original Guild Wars, even though I didn't have the time to master the game, so I was pretty excited last week when they announced pre-purchase. I now have a copy of Guild Wars 2 reserved, and next weekend (the 27th) is their first open beta weekend - which I get guaranteed access to since I pre-purchased.
Yeah, I'm stoked!
But I'm also on deadline. Black Earth: Bridge to Anaisha (tentative title) - the fourth and final volume in my Black Earth series - has to be finished by the end of the month, and there are only two weekends left that I can take advantage of to really plug away at the novel. Next weekend is one of them.
What to do, what to do?
I know! A Black Earth writing marathon. Starting today, I'm going to fill my IV with Mountain Dew (Code Red, Baja Blast, and Original), crank my writing meter up to RIDICULOUS, and plug away at this manuscript so I can get it finished by next Friday at noon - the time that the beta weekend starts.
Just writing this, it sounds crazy. I'm only 75,000 words into this thing, still aren't sure where some of the storylines are going, and still have the final scenes to write from scratch. Not to mention the over 250 story notes I still have to go through, all before I can pass it off to my editor.
But Guild Wars 2 is calling. And what better motivation to finish before deadline than the chance to enter the world of Tyria again after years of anticipation?
Here we go! By the way, this means I won't be blogging next week, aside from the Black Earth flash fiction piece #4, which will be posted on Wednesday. Assuming my computer handles the beta okay - I am crossing my fingers - I'll be blogging about my game experience the week after the beta weekend.
See you all on the other side! And leave me a comment if you too are going to be leaping into the world of Guild Wars 2 as well.
