Productivity Update: June 23, 2012

Just got back from a week in St. Thomas with my family.  Brought the notebook I usually carry in the car with me in case I should get a notion while I'm away from a computer.  I ended up filling up sixteen pages on both sides and a seventeenth page on one.  Wow.

I wrote much of two scenes, one from Escape from the Wastelands (Book #2) and the seventh book, tentatively titled Ruling the Wastelands.  The former is a duel between cowgirl Alyssa Carson and the villainous Falki Grendelsson, while latter is a really good character moment between Catalina Merrill and Andrew Sutter.  Hopefully this one will see the light of day, since it's so far ahead in the chronology.

Also elaborated on several characters and devised the plots for several novellas for e-readers a la Son of Grendel.  Some of them are "historical" (taking place before the first novel begins), while two more are "interquels" (taking place during the events of the novel).  At present, I have just as many if not more ideas for novellas than actual books in the series.  Given how relatively quick they are to write, this could be a way to tide fans over during the waits between novels.  Delilah S. Dawson came up with the idea in her first guest post, so props to her.

(Got to come up with some pertaining to protagonist Andrew Sutter though.  Bernard Cornwell wrote two extra "Sharpe" stories centered on protagonist Richard Sharpe, but the novella plots so far focus on Grendel's sons and the Merrills.)

I'm still waiting on comments from a couple of my betas for Battle for the Wastelands, but between their busy lives and the fact I'd like to have my Kennesaw group critique the whole novel and make the necessary changes before DragonCon this year, time is running out.  My plan is to add the additional Battle material I came up with over the trip, make one more pass for dialogue (one of my not-yet-reported betas had some problems with that), and then send it to the Kennesaw people sometime this weekend.  We'd meet to discuss it in early August and that gives me three weeks to revise before DragonCon, where publishers and (hopefully) agents roam.

Given how I've got a couples shower to attend, the Lawrenceville writing group, church, and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, timing this is going to be tricky...