Making Progress

The last three years have been rough. The only new thing that's been published under Suzan Harden since November of 2013 was "Diplomacy in the Dark" in Sword and Sorceress 30 (and that was November of 2015). The last new story Alter Ego published was in May of 2014. Some days, I wondered if I'd ever publish again.

I finally feel like I'm getting traction this year. Over the last week, I've

- hit the 46K mark on Zombie Goddess (Bloodlines #6)

- wrote the first 5K on Resurrected (Bloodlines #9)

- thought I'd be done with an Alter Ego novella, but it's turning itself into a short novel

- found an Alter Ego idea from four years ago, got caught up in the story again and wrote another 1K before I made myself stop

- shopped for pix and fonts for the cover of an Alter Ego short story I finished nearly two weeks ago

It sounds like I'm bouncing between the last four books of Bloodlines, and yes, I am in a way. But a lot of it has to do with linking, foreshadowing and consistency. The first draft of Book 6 should be done by the end of April.

However, I have a bad habit of typing so fast when I get caught up in a story that I leave out words, mainly articles and prepositions. By the time editing and proofing are done, I add 10-20K words. LOL

Now that things have settle down in my personal life (which is probably an invitation to Murphy to fuck me over), I need to prioritize projects based on how close they are to completion.

Today, my first task is getting the cover and formatting done for the AE short story and getting it published. Depending on how fast I get that done, and it may not be totally done today since I'm really out of practice and software has changed/upgraded, I'll finish the novella/short novel. The cover for it was finished back in 2012. That leaves the formatting.

The next step is to run through second-round edits for A Question of Balance, the first Justice novel, since that story is completed. The incredible Elaina at For the Muse Designs has already produced a lovely cover, so the last thing I need is to write the back cover blurb and to have the book formatted.

After that, I need to finish reviewing the proof paperback for Blood Magick (Bloodlines #1). I already found a couple of things that missed the mumble, mumble rounds of editing it's gone through.

Then hopefully, I'll spend Friday and Saturday hiding at Panera's to crank out some more of Zombie Goddess.

I can't do all NOW, but I can chip away at the mountain one grain at a time.