Building Consistency in Life and Fiction

Last week I wrote about making time to get things done. This week, I made it to the gym three times. I also tracked my calories more often this week, leading me to lose a couple pounds. Add to that the fact that my room/office is still decent compared to last weekend.

The next phase in improving my situation is to clear off my desk. I have the Book of Wind printed onto some typewriter paper. The taller paper requires more space for work. This work needs to get done because I have a few ideas in my head and I don't want to forget them.

As far as concrete numbers, my goal is to have The Book of Wind up to 20,000 words by the end of May. Overall, I want to have 50,000 words by the end of the year. Publishing this volume in 2019 is in question, but I'd rather put something quality together than something rushed.

Happy Reading!

This is a Rarity

Usually on a Sunday, I am away most of the day tutoring math. I had no appointments today, so a good part of the day was spent doing some Spring cleaning. My floors definitely needed to be cleared of stuff.

My worst problem as of recent is time. Between a full-time job, a side hustle, and household issues, it's difficult to make time for much else. It's more important that I take time to meal prep and exercise. I'm even taking a break from my YouTube channel in order to relieve some stress.

The fact that I'm posting to this blog is a rarity. It was not my intent to go on a six-month hiatus. It was also not my intent to take so much time to write the last two novels of the series. It is my intent to post more often and to finish my stories. I won't commit to a schedule just yet, but even working on them one hour per week will be an improvement.

Happy Reading!

Planning for Victory

It's the last Sunday before NaNoWriMo 2018. For the past couple weeks, I've been making notes about Senator Space, my project for this year's feat. Today, I'd like to share some strategies for preparation.

• Use a Timeline: A lot can happen to your characters in one year. Senator Space is going to take place over a five-year period, during which my main character goes through many personal changes, including career changes, new children, and physical improvements. 
• Relate Your Characters: Besides my main character, other characters include his wife, his son, and his father-in-law. The president, vice president, and senate majority leader will also play major roles in this novel.
• Re-imagine Your Surroundings: A casino recently opened in my hometown. Part of the construction involved moving a landmark church out of the casino's footprint. I figured that I can make the casino even bigger in my novel, or even move all of the churches. I also made a short list of other places I want to re-imagine.
• Use Templates: My character is joining a military branch after his political career sours. Soldiers have uniforms, weapons, bases, and rules. Make sure to take time to discuss what makes a group of characters special.
• Anything Goes: Ultimately my NaNoWriMo project will be a rough draft. If I have a silly idea, I'll put it in as long as it gets me to my word count goals. You could be lucky enough to hit a word count gold mine!

I hope you find these tips helpful. If you have any useful advice, leave it in the comments below.

Happy Reading!

A Return To My Domain

It's been five years since my last post? That's crazy!

What have I been up to since my last entry? I earned a preliminary teaching license. I've worked various teaching/tutoring jobs. I came to the conclusion that those jobs aren't my cup of tea. I was a data entry clerk for about a month and then spent the ten months following that working on and off in a candle factory. Following my last layoff there, I went back to data entry work and eventually landed my current full-time job.

Also, I moved! It was from one parent's house to another, but that's still a sizable change.

Now on to the important stuff: NaNoWriMo 2018!

Here's a list of a few developments:

• The tentative title for my book is Senator Space. In short, a Massachusetts senator has to go to great lengths to clear his name.
• I plan on doing some live streaming via YouTube every 10,000 words. These streams will be announced on Twitter.
• As for the Realms Quintessential series, books 4 and 5 have yet to be finished. With "Real Life" being a thing, I plan on having both books finished by 2020.

Thanks for stopping by, and happy reading!

The Game Maker

Often times when making a novel, the author fantasizes about his or her novel becoming a movie. I feel I am on the opposite end of that spectrum.

Instead of a movie, I feel my series of novels would better suit a video game. The characters can change classes, use weapons, and rank up, just to name a few things. The stories already allow for plenty of boss battles and mini-games. All I would really need is a team of kick-ass programmers and an epic musical score and we could have the next big RPG on our hands.

Deep Breath

I'm getting ahead of myself, of course. I'm still months from writing another book, and my programming skills are novice at best. Nonetheless, I think this is a cool idea and I'd love to get advice/collaborate on this if possible.

Please leave any suggestions in the comments. I look forward to any opinions you have!

Kindly Requested

Thanks to everyone who got a copy of each of the Realms Quintessential books during Free Book Fridays! On average, 36 people picked up a copy of each book.

If you were one of the people who downloaded any of my books, I ask that you head back to the Amazon page and leave a review. What did you like about the books? What can I do differently? Are there any technical issues with the file? All of these are very important to putting out a quality product for my readers.

Also, if you are looking for a guest blogger, I am available to write for you until September 5th. Please contact me if you are interested.

Happy Reading!

Free Book Fridays!

Hello everybody,

Today I am announcing Free Book Fridays! Starting July 12th and through the rest of the month, one volume of the Realms Quintessential series will be available to Kindle users.

To make sure everyone gets the full story of Viribia, FBF is starting with The Book of Fire. The Book of Earth will be free on July 19th. The Book of Water wraps up the promotion on July 26th.

Stay tuned for when these free books go live! Get the latest news from my twitter feed (embedded on the right).

Happy Reading!