MONDAY MUSINGS: STILL WRITING (I PROMISE)

I wish I would do better about writing regularly here. I know, hardly anyone reads what I write, in this blog or in my books. But that won’t stop me from putting my thoughts and feelings down for anyone to consider.

Here’s where I am with my second book, Rule Number One. The first draft is done. It’s gone through the critique group and my beta readers. I’ve even had some experts evaluate what I’ve written. I have a close relative that knows Russian language and culture, and I’ve found someone who works as a flight nurse. All of these people have given me invaluable feedback—which I am in the process of incorporating into the manuscript.

I want to get this done sooner rather than later since I still have to send it off to the professional editor for one last evaluation and critique. I hope that will happen in another week or so, but we’ll see.

I have the cover design done and have even gotten bookmarks printed for this second book. I still need to work on a video trailer. That’s going to be a challenge. If I make one, it’ll be shorter than the first one. The hard part is finding the copyright-free photos to use in it. We’ll see.

I’d like to think I have this second book ready to release in June. That would make eight months between the first and second novels. That’s not bad. Hopefully, I can get that down to six months.

Book number three, His Kind of Music, is underway, with about 100 pages written so far. It will begin with my critique group next week. I still have a lot of work on the plot, lots of gaps to fill in. It is evolving, much as the first two did, so I’m not worried about it.

It’s exciting, but there are so many more stories I want to write, I get antsy sometimes to make the process go faster.

I also need to work much harder on the marketing and promotion side. That’s the hardest part of this. It will improve, too, but I’ll never feel comfortable with that side of this business. I’d rather just write the books and send them off, like the lanterns in the animated film, Tangled, for the world to discover.