It’s time to start updating frequently again after a long absence.  Things have been crazy!  Since I last posted, I’ve gotten married, become a step-dad, moved to a new city, started a new job, and started my next novel.  Life has given me one crazy ride, and I’m still getting used to things.

Couple items of note.  In February, Shawn Boyles and I started a web comic, Rocket Road Trip, about the crazy adventures of a family of monster hunters.  We originally wanted this to be a cartoon.  (We had been writing cartoons at work for the previous year before this and wanted to create a property that was all our own.)  And the cartoons will be forthcoming…when time allows.

I’ve also had quite a year so far insomuch as my writing goes.  I finished Nethermore back in April or May.  It clocked in at 175,000 words and was a bigger train wreck than my first novel.  I actually didn’t even get to the end fo Nethermore.  It was just getting way too long.  I’d started the book at the wrong point, I’d added way too many characters, and I kept changing the characters’ motivations.

After consulting with the wise members of the writing group, I ended the novel with something along the lines of: "And then the vampires flew in from the west on the winds of unforeshadowed happenstance.  One by one, the main characters either died of surprise or were eaten by the vampires.  Then the vampires turned on each other until not one thing moved or breathed or spoke in the land.  In the end, all that is, and was, and ever will be succumbed to death and madness.  The End."

The advice of my writing group was to be finished with Nethermore and go back to it at another time.  I’d learned all I could from it, and it was time to start something new.

I began my next novel a few weeks later, and within days, I met the woman I would marry, and as many of you know, being engaged sucks up a lot of time.  I didn’t get much writing done, but I did gather notes and scenes for the next novel.  Last month, I outlined the entire thing and now have a stack of 3×5 cards waiting for me to sit down and write.

For Nanowrimo, I decided not to write that novel.  Several friends had suggested that I play to my strengths and write something short and quirky, with the idea of a younger audience in mind.

And so I’ve been hard at work on my middle grade novel, which–if I continue on at the same pace–I’ll finish this month or early next month, depending on how long it is.

I’m experimenting.  The new novel is a free write, and I have to sometimes reign myself in to stay focused on the story at hand, but I’m getting some of the most creative and fun scenes and characters that I’ve ever created.  I go back and massage out the glitches when this mad dash to finish the thing is over.

But in the meantime, I’m enjoying myself immensely.