run to the breakers

Well if the word calendar on the right is still functioning, you can see I’ve managed to stay on track all week, hitting 40,000 words so far. And Locks of Clay is coming along pretty nicely.

I had wanted to do some extensive plotting ahead of time, but one thing lead to another and November 1 showed up and I only had some very rough ideas in my head. I like where it’s going so far though, and if it’s a little rough, that’s what second drafts and editors are for.

I also picked up Gears of War 2 last night and ended up playing it until about 3am with a couple friends, as if there weren’t already enough distractions in this world.

I was able to get my daily 5,000 done first though, and that’s what counts.

(I also picked up a little RPG called Valkyria Chronicle, but I doubt I’ll even spin it up before february or so. January is for Persona 4, which I won’t be able to play in december, since I’ll be visiting my sister in Louisiana.)

A lot of stuff coming up real quickly: last week I hired an artist to do the cover art for Skeleton Army, today or tomorrow I’m sending off the manuscript to my editor for a run-through, couple weeks and nanowrimo will be upon us (and with it, the writing of the sequel to SA, Locks of Clay.)

Once the cover art is done I’ll probably throw up a little teaser, though I probably won’t FINALIZE the design until december. So far I like the guy I hired and I really like the direction he’s going with the art. Expect a strong recommendation at the end of the job, if things continue the way they’re going.

Looking forward to finally getting the manuscript to my editor too - can’t wait to get it back and get going on the next draft either.

And of course I’m chomping at the bit to get going on Locks of Clay.  I’ve got notes scattered across three different laptops, so I need to get them consolidated.  But so far I feel like this one will be light years better (at least in the first draft) than the first one.