Updates Before Fall Break

Some updates on what’s going on around here:

My query letter did generate some interest! A publisher is taking a look at my manuscript. It’s a nice validation that I’m not just writing gibberish. Still, I know the odds are against me. First time writer, 90k+ words, supernatural thriller genre, and it’s a trilogy? Ha. Skating uphill would be easier.

Speaking of Shepherds of Lost Things. Apparently I use the words “stared,” “looked,” and “started” a lot. In cleaning up some overused words I’ve made the book flow a lot smoother, but also learned to hate past-Ross for his cliched overuse of characters looking at things intensely. As always when editing the draft I started off thinking “this is the worst book anyone has ever written” and by the last chapter I was like “this is some clever wordplay here.”

As previously noted, I tried to make a ~70k version of the manuscript. That did not go well. I was reminded why the book is as long as it is. There’s a reason. It just doesn’t flow right to cut off after the dramatic car chase. However, my efforts were not wasted. I came up with a better way of giving the readers an important lore-dump. Thus pacing out Act 3’s big reveal better.

I put Vampire Detective Agency on the back burner while I worked on some additional polish for Shepherds of Lost Things ahead of a final round of submissions in September. Now that those edits are done I’ll be making a hard push to finish the first draft of Vampire… in November. A little game called Starfield drops next week. Then in October there’s a new Super Mario, Spiderman 2, Assassin’s Creed, and Forza Motorsport. Busy busy busy time for playing video games.

Finally, I’m starting to sketch out plans for a new avatar. Some might recognize that I use the same avatar image across all social media & services. So I try not to change it too often. I like the colors on my current one, but I’m thinking maybe it’s time to go back to a photo instead of an illustration. Hmm. Something to think about as I’m exploring the galaxy in Starfield next week.