Persistance Rewarded: My Novel’s Release Date Pending!

Rachael Lockhart as Rahab Carmichael, the heroine of Into the Flames

Hello, faithful readers! I sincerely apologize for the lack of posting for the past few weeks. Here’s what I’ve been up to:

• Editing Ghost Targets 4: Camouflage
• Writing a short story for the next volume of A Consortium of Worlds
• Trying to read a book that’s not for work
• Making sure all the pieces are into place for Into the Flames to be published
• Participating in two book clubs at work

But all excuses aside, I really should have been posting, at least to let you guys know what was going on. The biggest piece of news is that Into the Flames should be released sometime next week! Now this will be the Kindle e-version, but rest assured that the paperback copy will be available soon after. I can’t tell you how weird it is to have this date looming so close. I remember quite clearly a year ago when Aaron set this date, and I thought I would never be able to finish my rough draft in time. But lo and behold…!

So here’s what I’ve learned through this whole process, and it might not be useful for you, but it’s something I need to remind myself of from time to time. It is this: It’s easier to get things done if you just sit down and do it. And it also really helps if you have a deadline (even an arbitrary one) hanging over your head.

I’ve got to remind myself of this even as I’m working on this short story for A Consortium of Worlds. I know what I want it to end up as, but I’m having a hard time sitting down and writing it. It’s so much easier to stare at facebook and “formulate” what I want to happen next. And to be fair, if I write without planning first, my characters often end up running wild and doing things improperly. But then, it’s always a lot easier to fix characters runnign off into the bushes than to come up with something from nothing at all. If I just make myself sit down and finish this stupid story, then at least I’ll have something to work with. My deadline, which I’m not sure whether it’s arbitrary or not, is the end of March. So! There’s my goal for the next couple of weeks.

Along with making sure my first novel gets published. Yay!