This week, an errand took me across town. And since I was across town, I decided to visit The Museum of Russian Art. It was a great way to get out of the house, offline, and into the world. The visit was the perfect antidote for a week of fire-hose news blasts.
The crowds were light enough that you could take your time at each work of art, but there were enough people that it felt companionable.
Plus, if you’ve never seen a display of 1,000 nesting dolls, I highly recommend it (my iPhone 8 doesn’t do any of the art justice). In writing, I’m heading into the last part of book 2 (The Marigold Miracle). I won’t be officially done when I reach the end because I have a second plotline that I need to weave into the story. Parts are there, but it needs to be more robust. Still, getting (closer) to the end is pretty exciting.
Last week, Anno asked what I was working on and whether it was the series about Pansy (she of the sentient umbrella).
And yes, yes, it is. I’m writing the entire series. Or rather, I believe it’s the entire series, three books with a companion novella. I’m writing the whole series first before publishing any of it.
I’m doing this for a couple of reasons. First, I simply want the joy of writing it without any external expectations. If I publish the first book and it’s nothing but crickets and tumbleweeds, that can make the subsequent books more difficult to write.
If the first lands and finds its readership? Well, that could make the subsequent books even harder to write.
Right now, I’m in my writing bubble and having an immense amount of fun, and I don’t want to give that up.
Second, I think the series will be better for it. I’ve already refined the world-building by writing book two. I’m keeping notes of what I want to change in book one. Small things, a sentence here or there, backstory that needs a slight rephrasing. I could probably get away with not doing this, but I really enjoy doing this sort of work. To borrow a word I used a few blog posts ago, it feels like a luxury.
Last but not least, I believe that, in the long run, it will take less time to publish the entire series. There was a three-year gap between Coffee and Ghosts books three and four. Part of that was circumstances (oh, hi, pandemic). Part of it was I had to figure out how to bring back (spoiler) the entity. The entity is Katy’s foil. The series doesn’t work without the entity sticking its nose into things—not that the entity has an actual nose.
I will start publishing once book three is drafted and I feel secure about the content. Not all at once, but readers will know the series is complete.
So, during this first month of full-time writing, I reached ~91,000 words in book two (yes, these are long fantasy books). I’ve written close to 20,000 words this month. Considering I’m still recovering from burnout, I feel that’s significant. It feels like a win.
We’ve been in hibernation mode this week. Kitty, of course, secured the coziest pet bed.
But it’s not like the dogs are suffering. We have more pet beds than pets and lots and lots of fleece blankets.
See? Plenty of blankets.
But it was definitely a week for hibernation.
Maybe it’s because I’ve been consistently writing every morning, and the story is in my head a lot more these days, but I had a book three brainstorming session this week as well. The sort that really does feel like a storm, where you’re typing notes as fast as you can because the ideas just keep coming.
Up until now, book three has been essentially a blank canvas. I know the (many) story threads I need to tie together, but the what and how and when could be summed up with one word:
Shenanigans
True, book three is all about shenanigans. But now I have an idea of what those shenanigans might be. This is a good thing since I’m getting close to the end of book two. I’m not only relieved, although I am that. But I’m excited as well. I’ve been trusting my intuition and subconscious to work things out while I’m busy elsewhere, and I’m pleased that’s happening.
This coming week is bringing us some warmer weather. However, I predict Kitty will still claim the best bed in the house.
So this week, I headed downtown to meet with my accountant to do writerly business-y type things. I discovered that the office was one block away from the statue of Mary Tyler Moore.
This felt fortuitous, so I had to stop to take a picture.
You’re going to make it after all.
My morning routine hasn’t really changed since I started this full-time writing thing. I pushed my wakeup time forward by half an hour. I don’t know if this is my optimal wakeup time, but it feels close.
It’s true I no longer rush in the mornings to get an hour (or less) of writing done. The other thing that’s changed?
I don’t go online until noon. This is starting to feel like a routine now. But at first? It was like I was breaking some sort of rule. After all, being accessible was part of my previous job.
It’s not like people can’t contact me in case of an emergency. I don’t silence my phone. But I don’t get a lot of calls or text messages to begin with, so I don’t need to. I also don’t have social media on my phone (10/10 would recommend not having social media on your phone).
I obviously need to be online for this writing thing. And there’s a lot I like about being online, friends, interesting things to read, and hey, look, I’m writing this blog.
But it’s also abundantly clear that there’s a billion-dollar industry that’s intent on capturing as much (all?) of our time and attention. Not giving into that feels like an indulgence, a luxury.
And that has given me pause this week.
If you’re dealing with the polar vortex this week, stay warm!
So, one week into this experiment, and so far, so good. It’s been both wonderful and surreal. Last week, I had a short bout of the Sunday Scaries. It was as if my body didn’t believe I wasn’t logging on Monday morning and opening up email, Microsoft Teams, and Jira. (Oh, Jira. Do I miss you and my many filters? No. No, I do not.)
I was a little worried Monday morning that I’d open the manuscript and be completely blank—both the page and my mind. But I wasn’t, and I haven’t had a writing week like this in a very long time.
Accidental library and bookstore book haul
I also finished the Trapped in a Gothic Novel course with some help from that accidental book haul. I found The Haunting of Hill House creepy but interesting and not as scary as I expected. A Haunting on the Hill was very creepy, not to mention scarier. I like gothic fiction, but I’m not really into horror (at all). A Haunting on the Hill is about as scary as I can tolerate. I already had the last book, Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan, on Kindle (and it appears to still be at $2.99 as I write this if you want to go grab it).
Now it’s on to the other two books in my accidental book haul. Because reading (for pleasure) is absolutely part of my job these days.
I’ve alluded to an “exit strategy” on the blog previously, back in October. Over the past couple of months, I’ve been able to put it into action. As in:
As of January 3rd, I no longer have a day job.
I wouldn’t call myself officially retired, mainly because I plan on writing fiction full-time. Whether that amounts to an actual income stream is not something I’m necessarily banking on. I hope so, but it isn’t crucial.
So there you have it. I am now a full-time fiction writer, and the thought is both exhilarating and scary.
I’m still adjusting, obviously. You can’t work somewhere for twenty years and not need to adjust once you leave. Also, I’m in some pretty serious burnout, burnout I couldn’t get myself out of while working my previous job (I tried; oh, how I tried.).
I do not want to bring this burnout into my writing, so I’m committed to recovering, taking things slow.
But for 2025, I do hope to be blogging more, chronicling this new adventure. And yes, I hope to be writing and publishing more as well.
Right now, it’s enough to be able to take a full breath again, to have the time to do things at a natural pace, to feel that ten-ton weight lifted from my chest.
Right now, it’s enough to close the page on one chapter and start another.
I was going to Photoshop all the wires and utility poles out of the photo but then thought better of it. This is how my sunrise looks, warts (or rather, wires) and all.
This week, a video about people living in malls popped into my feed—because I’m a little obsessed with abandoned spaces, malls in particular. I wish they’d spent more time showing us all the different apartments. But it was still interesting, and yeah, maybe there’s a story idea or two in there.
In fact, Coffee & Ghosts, Season 4 (The Ghosts You Left Behind) has an abandoned (and the same not-so-abandoned) mall as one of the main settings. I based that particular mall on the one in my hometown, which opened when I was in eighth grade (I think) and was a Very. Big. Deal. This part of the story was fun to research and write, although I probably spent more time looking at “vintage” Orange Julius storefronts than was strictly necessary.
I also had fun exploring the whole “what if you’re locked inside the mall overnight” scenario. 0/10 would not recommend, but it helps if you have some ghostly companions.
So that’s me this Sunday. I think I’ll quit now before I go completely off the rails with this questionable 80s mall nostalgia.
So, when I was grocery shopping earlier this week, a woman came up to me in the coffee/tea/baking aisle. She asked if I knew where the crispy fried onions were, the kind you sprinkle on top of a green bean casserole. Before I could respond, she said:
I ask because you look like someone who would make a green bean casserole.
And before I could respond to that, she added:
Oh, never mind. They’re bad for you anyway.
And then wandered off.
I was going to suggest the condiments aisle. I did see her later, crispy fried onions in hand. So I’m assuming: One, she did locate someone who actually has made a green bean casserole, and two, decided the health risks were worth it.
Also, this week, I attended an author business summit. Actually, I’m still attending it because it was recorded, and I couldn’t attend in real time due to work. It’s one of the things I’m looking forward to doing during the long Thanksgiving weekend. There’s at least three hours’ worth of video left, along with some homework.
I’m pretty sure crispy fried onions won’t be involved.
This week, I unearthed my old bread machine from one of the lower cupboards in my kitchen. And when I say old bread machine, I do mean old. Not only could it vote, but it’s been around long enough to graduate college, complete med school, and residency before chucking it all to become a YouTube influencer.
My bread machine. She’s been around the block a few times.
I was wondering whether it would still work. Then I reasoned, why not? It’s only been napping there on the lower shelf, and there was no reason not to try it out.
So I bought a couple of bread machine mixes. Low stakes here. I decided not to go all in until I knew for certain.
What do you know?
It still works! And there’s nothing like the smell of baking bread for instant comfort. Unless it’s slicing into a warm loaf soon after.
So, my bread machine is very similar to my writing process. I’m not a fast writer. My stories need a lot of subconscious churning before they’re ready. So, this series I’m working on?
It’s been “in the works” for ten years.
Yep, you read that correctly. Ten. Whole. Years.
Granted, I’ve been doing any number of things during that time, including writing a whole other series (Coffee and Ghosts). In fact, I think I needed to write that first before writing this one.
It can be frustrating to be in this place, to have your process be the opposite of the current hustle and grind culture. But I’ve learned (often the hard way) that it’s so much better for me and my stories to write this way. In the long run, I actually get more words and more stories, have more fun, and end up with better stories.
And this week, I’m grateful that my bread machine reminded me of that.
After a week of lovely autumn weather, we naturally ended up with snow (!) on Halloween. Even so, we had some good traffic, and the trick-or-treaters gobbled up at least half the candy I put out next to our Little Free Library. My daughter and I are making short work of the rest. I decided to opt out of taking a picture of our snow-covered lawn.
In writing news, it was a brainstorm kind of week, with progress on the story and word count front. Clearly, my subconscious has been working overtime (if maybe I haven’t been).
Also, this week, I have a Chirp Deal going on as well for the Coffee and Ghosts Books 1 – 3 bundle, narrated by the fabulous Amy McFadden. Book 4 also has a price drop.
And last, but certainly not least, if you’re in the US and you haven’t yet, please vote.
Writing Wrongs 