It’s #NaNoWriMo Again

Once a year, I hole up in my whatever-I’ve-got-at-that-moment to write a book. My first novel was written during NaNoWriMo, a month of writing 1,667 words per day. So, too, were most of the subsequent ones. I “win” (write 50,000 words) most years, but some books take longer than others. And some years are harder.

I “lost” NaNo in the last presidential election year. I may yet lose it in this one. It’s hard to focus; politics, pandemics, and chronic pain are unhelpful. That’s an understatement, but you’re living on the same planet I am (I assume), so you know damn well what it’s like right now.

Usual sources of ideas, like listening to people talk at the bar while I work, are not happening. Long drives are my best time to think, but there’s nowhere safe to go. I needed to reallocate time from somewhere, and since I still have to eat and sleep and do laundry, the hours I spend writing are taken away from sewing masks, which feels wrong, but I’ve been at it for months now and made more than 300 masks, so something was going to have to stop me sooner or later. And, since my current project is the last book in a trilogy, I’m trying to juggle three books in my head and keep track of what everyone has in their pockets at the same time, working with only the brainspace not occupied by the aforementioned politics, pandemic, and pain.

That said, I am trying. I want you all to get a new book next year. I know you waited patiently for the last one.

Here’s hoping next year is better than this one.

Pharos is here!

Pharos, book two of Phaethon, is now available.

Hackers, faeries, screaming rockabilly neighbors.

Pandemic! At the Sewing Machine

Well, this is all pretty terrible, huh?

Since COVID-19 started getting serious, I’ve been sewing masks.

Writing is work, but it’s also a luxury. (Please see Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs before leaving angry comments.) My publisher is still hard at work doing their thing, so Pharos still has a chance of coming out this year, but the making of new words is on hold while I do things that are more important right now.

Continue reading “Pandemic! At the Sewing Machine”

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

From now on, all book-related story posts will be free for the public on Patreon.

I’m making this change because I don’t want access to book universe stories to be contingent on your ability to pay. I sell plenty of books. I give away books to people who come to me and say they can’t afford them. This is the new extension of that practice.

You can find the first two here and here.

Now On Itchio!

Select works, starting with The Big Book of Post-Collapse Fun, will now be available on itchio. This move comes in response to a conversation about the future of book distribution and encouraging independent options.

To celebrate this new store, The Big Book of Post-Collapse Fun is on sale for just $1.50 US from now until Halloween.