I feel a little guilty putting up this kind of a post, but I’m working hard to keep the habit of posting at least once a week, so I’m posting that I don’t have anything to talk about. Ironic, no?
School is keeping me busy, but not overly so. I had an exam last week in American Government, and one the week before in History (scored an 89 on that one). There’s a homework assignment due in History this week, and I have semester-long assignments in History and Intro to Mass Communications to get started on. The history paper is a review of a film with an eye toward the historical content and context of the film, and the Mass Comm assignment includes being able to review a film, so I can probably use the same film for both if I’m careful.
On the writing front, I’m gearing up for the third book in The Sad Girl series. I don’t even have a working title yet, so it’s Book 3. There’s a lot of research to do on this one, though, so it’ll be a while before I actually start writing. The Finding Angie concept has been submitted to Gravity, and I’ve also submitted the concept of Don’t Stop Believing, that one to Booktrope. Manuscripts should be going up this week. I love that I’ve got the latitude to submit manuscripts to any imprint of Booktrope, without being pigeonholed or typecast (typewritten?) as a particular kind of author. Not sure how normal that is compared to life with one of the Big 5 publishers.
The Sad Girl continues in the editing process. My cover artist presented a couple of great cover mock-ups, and it looks like we’ve already accepted one of them. Cover reveal is way down the road, but here’s a sneak peek.
Speaking of Gravity, the website is live now. Be sure to check out some of the authors and stories available there. The stories are heart-wrenching, and it’s really humbling to be in the company of such people.
As I get ready for TSG Book 3, I’m already looking ahead to the Red Dirt Justice series, which I thought I was going to start next, before I realized I had to finish TSG first. In preparation for that, I’m working on a new kind of series bible. That’s a document or group of documents that helps you remember little details like a character’s hair color, parents, or backstory. That way you don’t accidently change genders on a pivotal character, or make someone an orphan in one book after readers were just introduced to their parents. Maintaining what I have for TSG has been just okay. That was an accidental series, and it wasn’t that difficult to keep all the characters straight. But Red Dirt Justice is shaping up to be an ongoing universe, and I’ve got general outlines for ten stories before I’ve written word one on any of them.
That’s going to make it significantly more difficult to keep everyone straight, so I began exploring other ways to do it. I wanted something easy to maintain, with the ability to keep my research linked to a particular character. In my TSG folder on my laptop, I have 33 files, ranging from Daniel Cumberland.doc (his bio and backstory) to California Title 15 2009.pdf; 2008 Manual For Courts Martial.pdf; and Louisiana Codes chapter10.doc. If I could have a single file or listing for a character, with links to all that other stuff, it would make it easier for me to keep things straight. I finally started considering using a wiki, thinking that it would help me stay organized, and give me a way to make some extra material available for readers after I finish a book. I’m currently exploring both using a hosted Shoutwiki (which is run on Mediawiki, like Wikipedia) and hosting my own PmWiki, so if you have any useful comments on either one, please let me know in the comments.
Michigan football is 2-1, but I’m nervous about their QB. Jake Rudock came to UM from Iowa, where he threw five interceptions in all of 2014. He’s already thrown five in 2015, and he’s only three weeks into the season. Then again, he threw 13 picks for Iowa in 2013, and they still finished 8-5. I’d take an 8-5 season from UM this year. Heck, I’d take a .500 season at this point. But this story at MLive puts things in perspective.
Saints are looking at 0-2 as I write this, after a 1-3 preseason. That doesn’t thrill me. But they’ve been really inconsistent these last few years. 25-23 over three seasons isn’t that impressive. Then again, I’m not a football expert.
4 of the 23 known veterans in my ancestors.
I haven’t done anything relating to genealogy in months, which is frustrating. I could blame it on a lot of things, like money, or poor internet access, but it’s really just a lack of motivation. I’ve got my line traced back several generations, but my grandfather was one of six children, and my great-grandfather was one of eight. That’s a bunch of cousins that would be interesting to track down. I know some fought—and died—on the Western Front against the Russians. It would be interesting to track some of the others down as well.
My son, future granddaughter, and future daughter-in-law
In other family news, I’m becoming a father-in-law in October. I’ll gain a granddaughter as well. Sammy is an adorable five-year-old who quickly charmed her future aunt and uncle who met her last fall. Stacey and Matt seem awfully happy together, and I’m happy to have her join the family. I’m just not sure I’m ready for the whole “grandpa” thing. Makes me miss my folks that much more, and I ache for Matt since his grandfather passed away recently.
Hmm. So here I’ve written a thousand words after saying I didn’t have much to write about. It brings to mind the supposed Mark Twain quote about not having enough time to write a short letter.
Share your thoughts!