Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

Our Christmas was busy and interesting, with some family drama in a family that usually has no drama at all. Overall it was good, and overall I'm happy. Strangely enough, I'm happy its over with as well and looking forward to using the dull drum months of winter to good effect towards project work. I'm fairly excited to see what the new year brings.

It's a new Century you know, whatever that means for you (it actually means nothing, but sometimes just the thought that it should is enough to inspire people) and I, for one, am excited.

Some of it is personal, like the prospect of being able to move into a larger dwelling which will allow me a proper office, something I've never really had. My current workspace is in a small area between our kitchen and our living room, where I have to turn my music down and be interupted by things on TV if my wife is home.

My bold vison for an office sees a loft above the house with desks for working and shelves for comics and books and enough space to properly display my vast collection of Mechwarrior minatures as well as a work bench for painting Warmachine minatures (something I've always wanted to try). Also a proper gaming machine to replace my aging six your old tower. It has heating problems. This is my dream, I'm not sure if it will be realized, but I'm straining to make it so.

For writing projects, I really feel as if I have a solid editing method now, an editing method that I've been applying to Mynfield Mysteries and seems to be working. I plan on also applying this method to One Thousand One, a process that I've already begun.

I achieved my Nano goals, something I'm pretty proud of. Unfortunately it wasn't until the end of the month that I looked back and saw how much of the story was actually usable. I might say half, but that could be very generous. The good, amazing, thing is that I have a much better understanding of the story now and the editing process will proceed nicely with that in mind. Unfortunately some of the chapters need to be re-written completely, but I'm ok with that. Some chapters need to be deleted since they don't progress the story in any measurable way. I'll get through it. My goal is to have a full second draft that has continuity by the end of the year. With what I already have, I think that is very doable. I understand it will be alot of work.

Mynfield Mysteries is progressing nicely as well, and since the story is simpler, I think it's actually turning out better than One Thousand One. So far anyway.

Anyway, that's project news and life news. I'll get back to my 1 or 2 chapter of Mynfield Mystery posting's a month pretty soon. I just need to figure out where I left off.

Have a safe and Enjoyable New Years!

John.