Hope you had a wonderful holiday season. I would say mine was great, but I spent the quiet period between Christmas and New Years having my gall bladder removed. As surgeries go it’s not that dramatic or painful, but it is exhausting. I did a walk around the block yesterday with my wife and was surprised how tired I was when we got home. It’s with this sensation fresh in mind that I sat down this morning to figure out my goals and plans for this year:
First up, I want to get Shepherds of Lost Things out there for people to read. There are a few publishers I haven’t been rejected from, and they’ll have open submission periods this spring. So I’m working on a revised draft for that purpose. Nothing too dramatic is changing. I’m just cleaning up some dialogue here, polishing some plot points there, and mostly just trying to make it the best possible version of itself.
If the novel fails to find a publisher this spring then I’m going to move forward with self-publishing. This means creating cover art, finding some quotes for the back of the book, and getting all the ebook stuff ready. Unlike my first book, I do have some marketing plans this time around. I may have more to say about that at a later date, but one way or the other people will get to read the book this year.
Next up, I’m working on finishing the first draft of Vampire Detective Agency. I had hoped to be done by the end of 2023, but as I neared the end of my drafting I realized that the pacing and plot were all wrong for a romance novel. The two main characters spent far too much time apart, the ending got all up into saving the world bullshit, and the villains were too good to kill off in the first book. So while I don’t have to rework the entire book, I did have to toss the back half out and start over.
When I’m not working on these two books I’m hoping to get out and about to do some more photography this year. Mostly during our planned trips to Washington, DC and New York City. It’s going to be a long ugly weird election year in America, and I think we should all take whatever time we can to find peace and solace before the insanity really hits.
Be good to one another.
Ross Weisfish 