I survived Christmas

Christmas is over, and that includes the get-togethers.  It was actually pretty painless this year.  Hopefully everyone will enjoy the things I got them.

I haven't done much writing-related stuff lately.  I've been busy doing family things, and now I've got some other projects I'm working on, so progress will be slower than I'd like for the next couple of weeks.

The good news is that I've made a dietary change, and I think my digestion has improved a little as a result.  I'd love to stop having headaches all the time, and the key to that--for me--is digestion, so maybe I'm on to something here.  *fingers crossed*

The work-in-progress stands at about 103,000 words.  I'm right in the sweet spot where I aimed to be.  Still planning on publishing in January or February.  Probably February at this point.

My goal for 2020 is to publish book 5 of Wheel of Fire.  I don't want to have it take all year.  If I can truly get a handle on my headaches, then maybe I won't be incapacitated so often.  Maybe I can get more done.

I'm hoping for a pullback in the stock market over the next couple of weeks.  It's overbought, so it needs to retrace a little.  It's currently down in today's session, so maybe the pullback has started.  I've got my eye on a couple of things, but I don't want to pay a premium, so I've held off on pulling the trigger.  Hopefully I'll get the opportunity I'm looking for before this month is out.

In the meantime, I hope you all have a Happy New Year.  Let's make 2020 a great one.  :)

Progress report

I'm currently working on the mobi edit of book 4 of Wheel of Fire.  I'm at the 30% mark in the file on my Kindle.  I'm satisfied with that rate of progress, though I didn't get anything done this past weekend due to family obligations.  Word count is now over 101k.

I've added a new addon to my Firefox browser.  It's called "Multi-Account Containers."  It lets you open a new tab in a container, which means any site you log in to in that tab will be "contained."  You can open another tab and go to the same site, but you won't be logged in.  The login cookie is sequestered to the container tab.  This is a great little tool if you have multiple people using the same computer and you don't want their various site accounts getting mixed up.  It's also great if you want to keep your own multiple logins separate.

I've been trying to get more fiber in my diet recently.  I think a lack thereof is why I suffer from headaches so frequently.  The change seems to be working.  I'm cautiously optimistic.

It's cold today.  45 degrees right now in the middle of a sunny afternoon.  It's actually warmer in London, and it's after 8 P.M. there.

I'm still on track to publish in January or February, so fans of Wheel of Fire can get the next installment before too much longer. It's the fourth book of a planned seven, so it will feel good to get past the halfway point.  It's all downhill from there.  Well, not really.  The series climax comes later, so I guess it's uphill until then.  But y'all know what I mean.  ;)

Thanks again, Kobo

Just wanted to praise Kobo yet again.  Their in-house promotions don't cost anything up front--well, some of them don't; others do--and they almost always result in a non-zero number of sales, and that makes me happy.

In other news, I've started the mobi edit of book 4 of Wheel of Fire.  The manuscript is currently at 101,000 words even.  That will fluctuate as I go, of course, but not terribly much.

I've only got twelve days left to get in the Christmas spirit.  I still haven't watched my slate of favorite Christmas movies: Die Hard, Trading Places, and Death Race.  I need to get on that.  It's not Christmas until Hans falls off Nakatomi Tower!

Second draft is done

Finished it last night.  Word count is just over 100k.

Third--and final--draft is up to bat.

Update

Well, I made it through Thanksgiving intact.  It actually went off pretty smoothly.  Much food was eaten, much football was watched, and no children got hurt or threw tantrums.  Definitely a success.

The day after was a bit rougher for me.  I had a migraine, so I was in my usual migraine fugue state.  That's never fun.

Both days had one thing in common: I didn't get any writerly stuff done.  :(

But I'm back in the saddle now.  Continuing to work on the second draft of book 4.  Word count is around 95k, I think.  It continues to creep up as I edit, which was expected, so I'll probably hit my goal of a final product in the 100k-110k range.

And I still haven't started my Christmas shopping.