When Will Jefferson’s Road Be Finished? Ever?!?

I haven’t posted anything in a while, and a little update is warranted.

But first, Merry Christmas, everyone!

Okay, on to the update. I have good news: I am actively writing the last mile of Jefferson’s Road; I know exactly what needs to happen between where I’m at and where the story needs to get to; and I have a tentative end date, based on how much content I’ve been able to generate with some consistency of late.

Mid February.

Yeah, I know. That’s not nearly as soon as we’d all hoped. In fact, it may move up, but I don’t want to pull a George R.R. Martin here (Ha! I should be so lucky!). I don’t want to over-promise and under-deliver.

Okay, so what’s changed? What’s with the incredible delay and now back on track and everything?

In a nutshell–and granting that I already told everyone about my lost flash drive (boy, did that ever suck!), the primary reason that I haven’t been on track has everything to do with my recent job change. I’ve been promoted at work, and since that promotion, I’ve been up to my neck in trying to learn the new role with all its responsibilities, to the point where I come home from work rather stressed out and wanting nothing more than to sit my butt down in front of the TV and vege out for a while.

Well, I’m getting a handle on things now, and I’m not nearly as stressed as I used to be (It’s one of those things where you accept a promotion but secretly are convinced that they made a mistake and will discover it at any time despite the assurances you’re getting from your boss. Yeah, I know: insecurity much?).

But the real reason things are changing has to do with my lovely wife. Typically, she has played the writer’s widow role with particular glee. These past few months where I’ve basically been a couch potato, she’s come to realize that I’m not producing anything, and has finally said something to me about it. Yes, she put this before God in prayer first, so I have that in my favor as well. Basically, she’s told me that she wants me to write every day now, and that she’s expecting me to work at it for about two hours each evening Monday thru Friday, and then “whenever” on Saturday and Sunday, so long as I get about two hours of writing in. After that, my time is hers. And then I can watch TV or whatever after she goes to bed.

We just really started it all this week, and at the moment, I’m good for about 1k to 1.1K words. That’s where my projection is coming from, because I need about 60K more words before I can finish, and that puts me into mid-February for completion.

BUT…

But I also know that I can write faster than I have been of late, and can easily churn out 1500 words in 90 minutes when I’m at my prime. So 2k words (or so) in 2 hours is not unreasonable. Do some math. I may be done a month sooner.

Still, I don’t want to under-deliver as I’ve said, so for now we’ll keep the expected release date where it is.

I must say, I’m looking forward to wrapping the series up. It’s been a long journey, and I have many other projects awaiting completion, not the least of which is the next Jon Munro Adventure. And there’s another Janelle Becker book in some stage of incomplete. Along with a bunch of other projects picked up and put down again along the way. I’m hoping to get to all of them soon.

The idea I’m really excited about, though? I want to do an epic series on the American Revolution. I want to really dig into the various people and try to put together something that would rival Game of Thrones in its complexity and size. But it’s gonna require a ton of research to pull off, because it’s very important that I get it right. I love history, but I’m not exactly an historian. Might have to become one, I dunno.

All right. Update concluded. I’m getting back to Peter Baird.