Okay, so January turned out to be waaaaaaay busier than I anticipated. Outside of the normal family, day job, life stuff, I had a lot of writing commitments converge and try to punch me in the face. Don't worry, I'm still on my feet and no black eyes (yet). In turning in space hyenas one and two, Nick and I had to take care of all the small things that go along with submitting a manuscript to your publisher - the dedication, author bios, author note, cover art ideas, and the always-dreaded blurb for the back cover. We also created a new Discord channel so our readers can yell at us. . .I mean chat with us. It's still under construction, but HIADA's Hang Out is gonna be fun. Kevin Steverson has space hyenas 3, and we have all the small things ready to go, so that's another thing off the checklist!
I also had the awful, horrible, oh my god my life is so haaaaaard commitment to read for two of my friends. That's right, I had to take the time to read. Oh. No. I got to read Casey Moores' draft for his We Dare story. He said it was crap, I said you're crazy this is awesome. . .which, come to think of it, is kind of our normal. And then. . .and THEN I got to read Marisa Wolf's upcoming Baen novel. OMG. It's a draft, it's messy, pieces are still missing - and it's the best damn thing I've read EVER. I did not see the end coming, she made me choke up (I have it on good authority she's been properly smacked for THAT SCENE), and I'm pretty sure my brain just straight-up broke for a while. No joke, I just kind of sat in my chair, wondering what the hell I was supposed to be doing with my life. It's AMAZING.
But wait, there's more! I've got two short stories due by the end of the month. Somehow, that's only fifteen days away. Crap. I'm actually about 8K into my We Dare short, but I'm only about 3/4 of the way through the story. Hence, overwriting FTW. I'll have to cut this space pirate story down with a dang cutlass when I edit LOL. The other short is for Bill Webb's Last Brigade Universe. I had nothing. Full on stupid brain, no ideas. And then Casey Moores galloped in on a slightly muddy horse and saved the day. He helped me plot out a story that ties into his own, and you guys. . .it's going to be so much fun. I just have to write it!
And for a bonus round, I got to be on my amazing friend Kacey Ezell's Writer Life channel on YouTube. She is all about goal setting and planning to manage the craziness of real life, day job, family, and writing, and she's found a great system that works for her - the HB90 Planner System. I got to sit in with Joelle Presby and Joy Wandrey as Kacey did an excellent breakdown and discussion on the benefits of the system and how it's helped her over the past year. My sticky notes are currently threatening to take over my desk, so I'll definitely be looking into organizing things a bit better. Especially because I have a distressing tendency to think I got nothing done. . .when in fact I worked my butt off all day, Want to watch?
You can check it out here: https://youtu.be/4QEd2cqmpE8
Anyways, got to hit it if I'm going to meet my deadlines. Until next week, folks!
