Author Progress! September Round-Up (Patreon)

We have hit (and passed) the beginning of October! Which means it's time for progress reports, starting with productivity.

So, September was broken up painfully by Hurricane Irma and my surgery, which means even though on the writing front I was concentrating solely on a single project, I only managed to get from 22% complete on PG6 to 51%. This number will hopefully accelerate now that I'm no longer beset by urgent crises. My plan is to have the draft done by Thanksgiving, so I've got about a month and a half to write another 60K words. Seems do-able. I'll keep you apprised.

Also on the writing front: I've done a re-read of the missing Alysha novel, Sword of the Alliance, the one that falls between "Who is Willing" and Either Side of the Strand, and it's nowhere near as bad as I thought. My end-of-year project, then, between PG6 and Dreamstorm, is to edit that and pop it out, probably sometime in January.

I'm also trying to decide if I want to continue doing the cover art for the Alysha novels or if I want to hire someone for it. I like the book design, but with the exception of Alysha's Fall, the art has always been a placeholder. I'm completely sure that's a big part of why that series does so poorly compared to the other Peltedverse stuff, so I need to make some decisions on that Real Soon Now.

Moving on! I did a lot of other creative stuff in September, which was gratifying. In particular, I painted seriously, for the first time in ages! I know part of what's stopped me there was the loss of my favorite paper. While I've found a replacement, it's just not as good. I wish Fabriano hadn't reformulated the paper I used for ages. You'd think a company that's been around since Michelangelo's time would know the value of tradition. >.<

Nevertheless, I am really happy with the Clouds wallpaper, so much so that I wonder why I'm not painting more. Well, okay, I don't wonder.

• I don't love the paper I have to paint on anymore.
• I don't love how my sketches are turning out anymore.

While I can't do much about #1, the second thing is a matter of not spending enough time with my sketches. (This is also why I'm doing so many more cartoons, which are basically my first few lines without any further development.) Again, this is a materials issue. The right materials make or break my sketching process. If the lead is too hard, I skid too much on the paper and never drill down into the details. If the lead is too soft, I can't get the bones down before the lead makes my lines feel irrevocable. (And be irrevocable: at some point erasing dark lead destroys the paper.) I haven't really been happy with the leads and pencils I've got for a while, and I haven't been super-motivated to fix that situation.

Finishing this piece, though, has reminded me that painting is relaxing and I should do it more, so it's back in the forefront of my mind. Particularly since the bestselling pendants I make are of characters from my books! I should do some more recent pieces of them.

Related, I am really enjoying making the jewelry, so I hope to sell more of those so I have an excuse to keep doing it. I've had 33 orders in the last 30 days! That's fantastic traffic for my store, which is pretty low volume. (Yes, I restocked! You people keep making off with all my Vasiht'h pendants!)

So, looking at the end of the year, here's what I have planned:

• The Twin Kingdoms Kickstarter (tentative launch for that is now October 18th).
• Finishing/Launching PG6 (end of November/beginning December).
• Editing Sword of the Alliance (December/January).
• Trying to figure out my sketchbook situation so I can produce more sketches suitable for painting (ongoing).

September, then, was a bit of a wash, but October so far is back on track. *waves little pompoms* I wish I could say the same about my sales! My analysis of that is coming up later this week.