October 2023 Vol. 260
Dear ones,
A fire engine red leaf fell in the yard this morning as I was eating breakfast. I thought it was a cardinal landing on a branch, but when it didn’t move for a few moments, I realized it was the first true leaf of fall, tumbling to its final resting place. What a privilege to see such a thing in action. To know the trees have decided it’s time to rest. Rest isn’t something we have the grace to give ourselves, especially when the news of the world is so hopeless, heartbreaking, tragic, and scary. We plug in and can’t look away, and that affects everything, from our body’s ecosystems to our mental energy. If I can make a gentle suggestion: do step away for breaks. We can't help if we're too shell-shocked.
October is always my biggest, hardest month work-wise, and I have been going hard, and subsequently, I am rather wiped out. A lot is the natural jet lag from the summer of running from grief, some is seasonal shifts, a lot is the headlines, and a lot is work. Happy news: I’ve just finished the final revision of A VERY BAD THING (it took two rounds of edits, not too bad, actually), which is now in my editor’s hands, and I’ve also finished the fourth Joss Walker book, as well as two short stories in that world. We also taped 10 episodes of A WORD ON WORDS last weekend, which was an absolute blast, and I have pages upon pages of tasks that are all almost marked off.
Getting two novels and two short stories out in the world in a matter of two weeks isn’t something I recommend. I also had to update all the previous Jayne books and stories, fixing covers and backmatter, and while I knew I’d done a lot based on the cramps in my hand, you can imagine my shock when I got an email from Grammarly that I’d set a record-breaking week: 21,264,857 words reviewed. 21 MILLION words.
Now granted, I had files for 5 novels and 4 short stories open, plus prepping for the shows and such, but damn. That’s a lot. (A usual week for me is anywhere from 400,000-1,000,000 words reviewed, but with all these books being worked on at once, the AI was reading a LOT of material.)
All this is in preparation for the main event...I’m starting a new novel. This will be #32 to release (Jayne #5 is 31, A VERY BAD THING is #30), and is my 2025 standalone. It has a title, but let’s just go with its current call sign, #HLN.
I wrote the proposal for this new book the last night of Jameson’s life. She will always be indelibly tied to its creation, and that is finally something I can write with a smile. Yes, my heart still hurts, terribly. I have moments when it’s impossible to breathe, I miss her so much. But there are more good memories than bad now, and while I might have brought myself to tears writing this, that’s okay. Tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of bringing Jordan and Jameson home, and we will light a candle for her, and for all those we’ve loved and lost. It’s a Samhain tradition here.
And November 1, I will start anew, plotting and thinking, building the book. It’s truly from scratch this time, I’m not bringing in anything from previous ideas, so I’m going to outline as much as possible, using my 40 Scenes method, but also using John Truby’s THE ANATOMY OF GENRE to make sure I’ve hit all the marks. I’m very excited to get going. It’s nearly time. Doing a million things is always fun, but there is something deeply satisfying about diving into a new story, with no distractions from other parts of my life. I have nothing to do but this book right now. I designed my year with this in mind, and I am ready to sink into the deep work.
But first, some news! The sale you’ve been waiting for is here!
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