Ramblings

Recovering From Some Changes…

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So after a major life change in my family, I’m back to writing again. Two pretty large events totally threw me off pace this past September. Even mentioning them in the context of writing feels a little out of place, and I don’t want you to think that I don’t regard these events as highly significant. The first was the passing of my mother-in-law. It was expected and yet unexpected. She’d been suffering from a debilitating disease, and yet when the time came, it took us all by surprise.

Naturally, I didn’t do any real writing during this time. Just a couple hundred words or so when things settled in the evenings, and there wasn’t anything better to do.

The second event was a new job, which I am just now starting to settle into. I’ve been promoted to an assistant manager of a new house. Actually, it’s a new house with new guys and new staff: Yikes! My company rarely does this, but this was a special opportunity. Nevertheless, it’s been marvelously chaotic as we learn to adapt to new responsibilities and new routines. Finally, this week, my work schedule seems to have settled down to a dull roar, and we’ve grown more comfortable with the new guys to not be quite so stressed out as before.

Still, this morning met the third day when I have successfully reached my 2k word goal. I’ve had to let go of two projects–Nicholas and the next Jonathan Munro Adventure, both of which were falling behind as it is. Nicholas, being a Christmas story, is better released next October. And since the second Jon Munro book, The Elixir of Life, hasn’t come out yet (November!), it’s okay to hold on to it until we reach the new year. This does put me back a bit on those projects, however.

On a positive note, however, this does mean I should be able to finish the remaining four books in plenty of time, even going over my typical word count if need be. Jefferson’s Road: God and Country, Descent, A Glass Half-Empty, and The Blood-Eater Coven are all past 40k words and still climbing. I have hope that, maintaining the 2k word goal, I’ll have these books done, perhaps in time for Christmas.

200,000

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Okay, so this post is a few days overdue. Sue me. On September 5, 2013, I broke the 200,000 mark for the first time in a single year. I’d love to say that was 200,000 books sold, but it ain’t. It’s my word count since February 15th. The actual count (as of this moment) is 204,644, with another 1200 words to go to make this evening’s quota.

Of those 200K words, more than half were written since July, when I knuckled down and started trying to crank out 2k words per day. My actual average is around 1500, but better to aim for the moon than for the streetlight. At this pace, I should easily be able to write and finish between six and seven novels per year. Naturally, I’m hoping for more.
My six WIP’s are all closing in on 40K words (half done). The average is 37,400. I don’t think I’ll actually finish all six this year, but there’s a real good chance of knocking four of them out of the park.

The only one that sorta befuddles me on that point is Nicholas. Since this is a Christmas story, I’d sorta like to have it done by November at the latest, but it doesn’t look like I’m going to make it. I’ll finish it regardless, but it’ll just have to wait until next Fall before I release it. Probably right around the time you first begin to see Christmas sales going up.

In the meantime, I’ve worked out a schedule for next year’s books. I’m going to do the fifth Jefferson’s Road book, another Janelle Becker novel, and the second book in the New World Order series. I’m also going to work on a set of three novels that comprise a new series called “The Issachar Initiative.” These will be spy-thrillers about an off-book black ops organization responding to problems around the world. I’ll tell you more about it once I begin work on the project. I hope to cannabalize one of my half-written books for this purpose, and retask an outlined book for the same, and then write a third one as I’m working up the first two. I’ve never tried to write three books in the same series at the same time before, so it should be interesting. Regardless, I expect to release them rather close together.

At any rate, you can look for Jefferson’s Road: God And Country, Descent, A Glass Half-Empty, and The Blood-Eater Coven (Book 2 of The Dragon’s Eye Cycle) sometime early next year. I’ll also be wrapping up a third Jonathan Munro Adventure, as well as Nicholas for the 2014 schedule. And, of course, the second Jonathan Munro book comes out from Ellechor this November.

Okay. Enough updating. Back to work!

A Year of Milestones

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Since I first published The Spirit of Resistance in July of 2010, I’ve been marking my writing year from July to June. Thus, now that we’ve crossed the threshold into July, it’s time for a recap.

An especially helpful recap, frankly, because for the past week or so I’ve been feeling rather discouraged. No worries, though. It’s just part of being a writer, I’ve learned. There’s good days and bad days, up and down like  everyone else has.

At any rate, this year has been a  year of milestones.What are they? I’m glad you asked.

#1 –  TEN NOVELS WRITTEN

I’ve written and either published or had accepted for publication (Which is practically the same thing in my book) now ten novels. Yes. I’m officially into double digits. The Elixir of Life is due to come out in November, which puts me over the top. I don’t know if I’ll have another completed before then, given my current attempt at writing six novels contemporaneously, but it’s possible.

#2 – SOLD OVER 1,500 BOOKS

As of this writing, it’s more like 1,600, though I don’t have final numbers in yet from Ellechor (due Friday, and probably worth an update when they arrive).

When you combine these numbers with the freebies I’ve given away, I have almost 32,000 copies of some of my books floating out there somewhere.

Kboards (formerly Kindleboards) has just put up an author milestone page where my tally shows up (I have to update it. It’s on the honor system), and it’s kinda cool to see where I stand in relation to other authors. I’m definitely on the right target. It’s also highly motivational. I really want to get to that next threshold, now.

#3 – SOLD OVER 1,000 COPIES OF A SINGLE WORK

The Coppersmith crossed that threshold this past month, and I now have sold 1,003 copies of that particular story. That’s more than all my other books combined, which is kinda cool given that it’s my first born novel. Way to go, kid (hey, it’s a metaphor. Trust me: writers get it).

And while not exactly a milestone, I’m happy to report that I have now written over 100,000 words since mid February (or since the start of the year. If you remember, I took six weeks off at the beginning of 2013). While I’m convinced I can do better, it’s still something to be proud of. I’m averaging about 725 words per day at the moment. Now that I’ve got my groove back, I should be able to push the last two of my six current WIPs over the 20K threshold.

Of course, if I expect to maintain the growth of my book sales, I’m going to have to do some kind of promotion again this fall. I don’t know if I can duplicate the results of last year’s efforts, but I hope to pull something together that will at least get me close.

Some day, probably not next year or even the year after that, but someday fairly soon, I should reach the magic threshold of 1,000 books per month. That’s the magic line where a writer can earn a respectable living from his words alone. That’s the real short term goal. I guess I’m getting closer and more confident now that it’s achievable–and that is a milestone.

Back from Break, Hard at Work

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Been a while since I put any posts up, and a friend recently queried as to what I’m working on. Granted, he’s primarily concerned with what happens to Peter in the next Jefferson’s Road book (don’tcha just love those cliffhanger endings?!), but it did put me in the mood of letting you all know what I’ve been doing in the past several weeks.

I brought my “hiatus” to an end around the beginning of February. It was a little difficult to get back into it. I found myself only able to generate a couple hundred words every few days at best. But I stuck at it, and around mid-February started tracking my progress again. Since then, I’ve been much more consistent in cranking out words, though you’ll note that I’m not working steadily on any one project.

No, in classic “Michael J. Scott” style (which is to say, utterly scatter-brained), I’m working on six different novels all at the same time. So here they are, with the word counts as of February 15th and the words generated since then:

In The
Widening Gyre		 God And Country The Blood-Eater Coven The Music of
The Spheres		 A Glass Half-Empty Nicholas
65,117 4,923 3,625 6,134 9,546 1,197 7,286 1,300 4,237 3,254 5,170 2,240

So you can see, all these books are getting at least a little love. I still need to do a little more on MOTS and BEC, just to bring them up to the 2K range, but I’ve made consistent progress over all. I’ve added almost 20K words in a month’s time. Not exactly as much as NaNoWriMo numbers, but fairly respectable nonetheless.

Dad wants me to hurry up and finish Gyre, and all I can say is that I am working on it. I’ve broken 70K words, and we’re nearing the climax of the tale. In the meantime, I also know that God And Country is a high priority, and so is MOTS, frankly. My second Jonathan Munro Adventure “The Elixir of Life” is coming out this summer. I’d like to have a manuscript to send to Rochelle before it comes time to put together 2014’s catalog. But I’m a long way from that, and the outline isn’t even finished.

Frankly, I don’t know to what degree a hiatus worked for me or not. I know I’m not “burned out” like I was, but I also noticed the struggle I had to restart after taking a month off. I’m starting to think that maintaining a regular pace would be better than burning the candle at both ends like I did. I guess we’ll see how it turns out this year. I do hope to get at least four of these books finished this year, if not all of them. And I’ll keep at it until they’re done.

2012 Retrospective

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I was about to begin this post with some banal cliché about what a crazy year it’s been, or what a difference a year makes, or something similar, when it occurred to me that such thoughts were, well, banal and clichéd. It’s a curious habit we have: taking stock of the past 364 (or in this case, 365) days and asking ourselves how things are different. Life changes on a dime, and what difference does it really make where that change happens on the calendar? My life about came to an end almost four years ago with my wife’s cancer diagnosis. Every day since then has been a gift of sorts (still cancer free going on four years!).

Not a lot has changed for us here in the Scott home. I still have the same job I had last year. Same schedule. Same house. Everyone’s a year older. My daughter is now leading worship at our home church, but that’s only been going on for about six weeks now.

We’re still having the same sorts of arguments and disagreements and disagreeableness in a house filled with teenagers that we were last year. Things are a little smoother in some ways, but not so much that I could say things are radically different. The economy still sucks. Politics still suck. And our American culture shows continual signs of severe distress. Life goes on, even as it feels like it’s getting worse all around.

I began this post with the intention of talking about my writing/publishing career, and now it seems it’s taken a more serious tone. Apologies for that.

What’s changed… Well, I have more books available now than I did this time last year. I had just finished Spilled Milk, and Eye of Darkness remained a future hope. The Lost Scrolls came out this year, so that’s good. I now have two more completed novels I’ll be releasing soon (and The Elixir of Life, the sequel to The Lost Scrolls, is due out in Spring), and one more that will be completed shortly (In the Widening Gyre). At the end of 2011, I’d sold 344 books for the year, at an average rate of 29 books a month. I made about $371 on books that year. As of 2012, I’ve sold 1106 books for the year, at an average rate of 92 books per month, and earned about $1,625 for the year. Of course, that includes the major sale in September, which I’ve yet to duplicate. The actual average is about 38 books per month. Still an improvement, but hardly enough to live on.

I’ve now finished nine novels. Soon to be ten.

I think this next year, I want writing to be fun again. These past few months it’s taken on such a push (both the heavy September marketing and the NaNoWriMo contest in November being largely responsible), that I want to back off a bit and have more fun doing this. What’s the point if I’m not enjoying it? Especially given the nature of the world at large to show such signs of rot. I write because I need to – not because I have some kind of message to give (Jefferson’s Road notwithstanding), but because I need the escape from it all, perhaps just as much as my readers (now in excess of 31,000 books being read – that’s new!) need the escape as well. And, of course, there’s always the possibility that I’ll get “discovered,” or that something radical will happen, and my books will take off – thus changing our lives permanently.

Well, one can always hope.

Happy New Year.

NaNoWriMo Days 19-25

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19-Nov 1123
20-Nov 0
21-Nov 0
22-Nov 3988
23-Nov 3430
24-Nov 1768
25-Nov 1078

I’ve got 32,083 words finished as of 11/25 (11/26 numbers are still being generated, but they’re in excess of 3,100 at this moment.) I still need to come up with another 15K words or so before Friday. I think I’ll make the threshold just in time.

So far, Topheth has passed the 70K mark, and is rapidly careening toward an end (looks like it’ll wind up somewhere in the 80K range); and The Tree of Liberty has pushed past 62K, and is still climbing. I’m not sure how many words it’ll have. There’s a few hiccups in the plot line I didn’t see coming, which might lengthen the story–I hope, not unnecessarily.

I believe I’ve hit and pushed through the wall, and now only sheer, dogged determination is going to get me across the finish line.

But if I get through this, and then can still wrap up In the Widening Gyre by the end of December (barring any unforeseen-by-any-except-the-Mayan-end-of-the-world events), then I will have successfully completed no less than six different novels this year (Spilled Milk, Eye of Darkness, The Elixir of Life, Topheth, The Tree of Liberty, and In the Widening Gyre). Not too shabby at all!

Next year will be the year of sequels! I hope to write a stand alone for NaNoWrimo 2013, though. I have a number of candidates in mind.

And the series just don’t end. Just the other day I came up with a concept for a space opera based on the political intrigues surrounding a future Silk Road (that’s what happens when I spend too much time watching the History Channel), in which contact with earth has been lost, and the far-flung colonies believe that humans on earth have been wiped out. It’s got a lot of grit, with something resembling a Firefly feel (though without the whole controlling planets and failed revolution type thing). It’ll be less cowboy, too.

Of course, God only knows when I’ll get around to writing it. But this is precisely why I’m aiming to churn out multiple books per year. I’ll never get anything fun written if I don’t ramp up my pace. God willing, at some point in the near future, I’ll be able to do this full time. Then we’ll see what can happen.

All right. Enough rambling. I gotta get my “B” back “IC”. Later!

After the Storm…

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Well, we survived my sister’s wrath (inside joke. Gotta know my family), and the kids and I spent this morning cleaning up debris along our street – especially helping the neighbors who had some downed trees in their yard. Nothing too big to handle. It always kills me when people act shocked that neighbors help each other out. My God. What kind of society have we become that such is so unusual. Neighbors are supposed to help each other out. That’s why we live in communities.

Proverbs 27:10 says, “Do not forsake your friend or a friend of your family, and do not go to your relative’s house when disaster strikes you— better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away.”

At any rate, we’re fine and so is everyone else on our street, too. Power’s still out, though RG&E’s website says it was restored at 11 am. It’s a waiting game, I reckon. In the meantime, we’ve got propane to cook with, and a gas water heater for showers and such. Freezer on the back porch will keep the milk cold till things start working again.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers.

In the meantime, I’m still gearing up for NaNoWriMo, and I’ve picked up a new reader for In the Widening Gyre, so I really do need to wrap that book up in December. I’m at the library right now, using the local internet (wireless is out), just trying to wrap things up before the session times out. I’ll be going in to work an overtime shift tonight (called in “sick” last night ’cause we were under evacuation orders. Had go-bags packed and everything, but turns out we didn’t need to leave.). Hopefully, I’ll get some progress done.

I’ve gotten most of Tree of Liberty outlined now, and I think I see where the problem is. I’m gonna try to use the rest of today to finish outlining the story. Maybe then I can actually get this sucker done.

Dude, Where’ve You Been?

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I received this email from a friend this morning, and thought I’d share it with you:

Dude… where’s the writing/publishing updates?

I need to know what’s going on with my writing friend’s authoring endeavors (perhaps because I may somewhat slightly a teensy bit be living vicariously through said endeavors?)  🙂 🙂

Anyway … why is it so quiet on the website?

Hope all is well. And that you’re still selling many books.

And finishing the third book in the Jefferson Road series……….

🙂

Greg

This is what I sent in reply (slightly edited for personal content):

I’m still plugging away at stuff. Concentrating mainly on Topheth (Coppersmith sequel) and previously mentioned JR. Just figured out a major plot point in JR this morning (I do my best writing in the shower for some reason).

The book sales have petered off since the first major push of September. I’m needing reviews on the next two books (Spilled Milk and Eye of Darkness) before I can do any more formal promoting (something about five reviews needed minimally, though my publicist wants ten for the next one we promo. Yikes!).

So I’m just concentrating on getting something new finished. I’ve also been helping a friend with his book covers and formatting. He’s leaving his publisher and going indie, so I’ve been commissioned to assist. It’s good for a couple hundred bucks.

I plan on NaNoing this year (from NaNoWriMo – National November Writing Month and the attempt to crank out 50K words in 30 days), so I’ll use that time to get one or both of these books off my plate.

Other than that, I’ve been doing a lot of home repair. Just finished reinstalling a sump pump in the basement. The seal on the previous pump’s motor broke, and the entire motor housing got contaminated with water. Electric motors and water don’t mix. Anyway, they had an older pump down there that the motor still worked, but the pump fan was damaged. I repaired it with JB Power Weld and reinstalled. Hope it works!

So between housing repairs (washer, dryer, sump and vacuum cleaner), and overtime, I haven’t gotten a lot written. But I am still writing!

How ’bout you? What’s new on the homefront?

– Michael

Yes, it’s true, I’ve been somewhat absent from the site for a while. I should add that I’ve also begun the next installment on The Dragon’s Eye Cycle. Spending time with that when the main projects are just getting a little too frustrating. The advantage of fantasy is that I don’t have to do that much research as with other books.

The other thing I’ve realized – and this is essentially true of the Jefferson’s Road series, is that every new book gives me less and less freedom than the book before. The previous works constrain me in ways that a new novel doesn’t. I have to ensure that I’m maintaining consistency throughout, and the more I write, the harder this gets. My hat goes off to others who’ve done this and done it well (JK Rowling comes to mind – radically different genre, of course, but still: seven sequential books that have to remain consistent with the previous installments, or there’s hell to pay!)

At any rate, I hope to have some new material for y’all soon!

Updated Look

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Okay, it’s fairly obvious (since you’re here) that I’ve changed the look of the blog. So what do you think? I’ve got a listing of all the current titles available on the front, with some tantalizing images of future covers that I’ve worked up as well. The navigation should be a little smoother, too.

Soon I’ll be incorporating a few more elements (though I’m doing this at work right now, so I don’t have access to everything on my hard drive), including regular newsletters and polls (yeah, as in, “What would you like to see finished first,” or “What stories do you like best,” etc.), as well as (hopefully, if I can swing it) a chart that shows the progress of my various projects.

I think, by the time we’re done, this is gonna be an awesome site to call home. I hope you come back and check often and chat. Lemme know what you think!

Coming Soon to Amazon.com…

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Yes, I’ve gone and bit the bullet. I’ve submitted Jefferson’s Road: The Spirit of Resistance to Amazon.com as an e-book for their Kindle reader.

Really hoping I haven’t just stepped in a big ole’ pile of poo.

Anyway, I will keep this blog posted on what happens–if anything–with the book. Assuming Amazon approves it for their store (it’s that whole “Is this guy recommending sedition?” thing that’s got me a bit nervous, truth be told), then I’ll announce it on Facebook, create a fan page there, and upload the (slightly revised) video below to youtube and any other video site I can think of. I’ll also be announcing the book on the Tea Party website I joined a while back, as well as anywhere else I can think of.

I’m sure a mass e-mail wouldn’t be too inappropriate, either. Yeah, it’s SPAM, but it’s my address book. Just saying.

For anyone curious why I’d do something like this, check out the following links. You’ll see what I mean.

http://christianwriters.com/showthread.php?t=31559
http://christianwriters.com/showthread.php?t=31569

Thanks for listening.