Many Hats; One Head

Okay; first four books in the Chronicles of Aesirium (out of 6) are complete and prepped for final formatting. I'm going to get them a final edit or two just to make sure all the Is are crossed and the Ts are dotted, but it's nice to be patting them on the head. Book 5 needs an edit or two, but it's mostly done, save for a few last bits, and book 6 is already a couple chapters in, but yearning for me to write it. In spite of the world, I proceed.

 

Was headed into a nice vibe yesterday when all hell broke loose across the nation in terms of bad weather alerts. Now, I'm not one to bite the hand that feeds me, so while I really can't hate the fact that I had a paying job that needed me to shift my focus away from writing fiction and onto hazardous weather tracking and continuity planning....well, at the time, it was fairly frustrating.

The entirety of wearing multiple hats is not unknown to me; don't get me wrong. It's good to have a grounding and foundation of an established job in those lean months of creativity - it's liberating in a very real sense in that I never need think "I MUST write, for if I do not, I will starve!" I'm fully capable of generating my own sense of urgency, trust me. What's more, I love writing. I'm very happy to just write and write anyway.

But all the same, there are days in which I do not enjoy the conflict.

And before I continue, please let me state for the record that I appreciate the irony of a person taking time out of his busyness to address his...busyness. I get it, I do. But at the same time, this sense of frustration is like a burr beneath my saddle. A moment of resolution will prevent catastrophe, trust me.

So here's a snapshot of where I am for my 2011 projects:

Chronicles of Aesirium (6 books total):

• Drafts complete: 5
• Concept Kit: Complete
• Final Edits complete: 0
• Formatting complete: 0
• Cover Art complete: 0

Project P (Secret Flying Pen Press project):

• Materials received and being assimilated;
• Business proposal will need to be written.

Steampunk Shakespeare:

• Sonnets completed: 0

Steampunk Short Stories (2):

• Steampunk Comedy; Conceptualized, outlined
• Cousins origin story: conceptualized, outlined

Anachronology 101/The New (ab)Normal:

• Data compiled, needs to be sorted and formatted
• Estimated: 5-6 books (faith, the internet, parenthood, work, politics, random observations about the world)

One of the big changes I'll be making this year is shifting my focus for my personal projects to an eBook one. Flying Pen Press has stated that they would be publishing the Chronicles of Aesirium books, but their focus is in POD distribution, and not on ePublishing, so there's still a vast arena to be explored.

 

But I've also met a very successful ebook author who has offered to introduce me through that process - so it may be a bit less dangerous than I'd previously expected.

Hmmm. I can't decide if this blog has helped me or made me feel more stressed. Bleah.