A Modicum of Truth, the second novel in the Justice series, was released on February 12th. That's only 37 days ago. It was over 100,000 words, not including the glossary and the sample chapter from the third book.A Matter of Death (Justice #3) will be most likely be another 100,000 words.
And I've already started getting e-mails asking when it'll be out.
Now, I could get pissy and growl, "I'm not your bitch," a la Neil Gaiman's blog post back in 2009, when a reader tried to get Neil to gang up on fellow author George R.R. Martin over the incomplete Songs of Ice and Fire series. Which was first published in 1996 and is still not done.
But that's not going to make my situation any better.
Because there are those readers who've been patiently waiting for the end of the Bloodlines series to come out since Blood Magick was published in April of 2011. Or the readers who are wondering what the hell happened to the 888-555-HERO series that was announced in January of 2015.
Then there's simply life.
I'm a middle-aged woman with a disease that is slowly, but surely, killing me. A fact I was forced to acknowledge recently. It's a disease that's been eating away at me for nineteen years already. Quite frankly, if I take care of myself, I may be able to eke out another thirty to forty years.
Maybe.
If I'm lucky.
I'm not whining. It's simply a factor of my existence. And I have to keep my stress level under control because that only aggravates my condition.
I have to balance everything--home demands, family demands, work demands along with a little downtime so my brain doesn't explode.
It means a steady pace of 1-2K words a day, which is pretty frickin' slow compared to some writers, but it's manageable with my endurance and pain level. It means taking the time to eat right instead of munching on cheese and crackers at my desk and not paying attention to the quantity. It means making a point of walking every day. It means taking a little time every day to read or watch TV or talk with a friend.
I know readers want me to be the hare, pumping out books as fast as I can, but I'm not. I am the tortoise, and I have that finish line in sight.
That's the wallpaper for my laptop. :D Did I get it from you? I forget where I got it. [laugh/flail]
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, I don't even want to think about how many series I've started. [hides under keyboard]
You do what you can do, and take care of yourself. I'm just starting to fully recover from my sick/collapse/injury in late February; I'll make my 10K step goal today, and I made it yesterday. Two days in a row, yay! I was doing 12-15K per day before I collapsed, but hey, intermediate goals are still progress.
Hang in there, take care, do your thing. We'll be ready to devour your books as they're finished. :D
Angie
ROFL I don't know if I stole it from you or someone else. I just remember seeing it not long after the first Avengers movie was released, and it kept me going through some rough times.
DeleteI just had a confluence of stuff lately. This post was more a reminder to me to keep things in perspective.
I'm glad you're getting around better!
I feel you. If I don't nail my sleep, diet and exercise I might as well not get out of bed. I'm so frustrated I want to scream, so I scream, and it helps. :-)
ReplyDeleteLOL You also live in a little place in the woods. I start screaming in our apartment, the police WILL be called.
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