A happy Thanksgiving to all (who celebrate it)!

As mentioned in last month’s post, this is the first year without the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month; 50K words on any writing project in 30 days) challenge to occupy the month of November. For some writers I know, this is a weight off their shoulders, leaving them still free to write as much as they want; for others, it’s a great tragedy, leaving them without much of the community and camaraderie this event brought for them. Feels as if I’ve landed somewhere in the middle: there’s less pressure, but I can keep that going as needed without a word counter, and my community’s largely intact–growing, actually, since before NNWM closed its doors.

The main way NNWM’s absence is manifesting, for me? Instead of one mammoth project, it’s a whole lot of nibbling away on seven, eight or more at once. Main focus at the moment is an Alternate History short story draft (working title: “All Quiet in Calais”), centered on a world in which Germany won WWI–by the narrowest of margins–and is now dealing with the consequences of victory. At nearly the same time, I’m tinkering with the two trilogies (plus prequels/bridging novels) that make up my AH/Fantasy Pangaea series. Maybe the sum of work I expect to have done by end of the month will equal the old Nano goal; more likely not. Either way, the first should be done around that time, or a little after, and several key gaps or glaring issues/errors in the second will be dealt with, too, making for a solid month of writing.

There’ll be a special cap to all of it, too, in the next few days: Somewhat sooner than expected, The Hopkinsville Raid, the first work in an expected Civil War Hist. Fiction short story series, centered on reinstated U.S. Marshal John Lawrence, has passed the final beta/round of editing, and is on track to be released in early December! Not only is this work my first stab at such a genre, but it will be my first work published through Draft2Digital, as a step towards trying for a wider audience than that offered just by Amazon KDP. Check out the cover art here, and stand by for the D2D link!

I’ll have more news yet very soon; meantime, have a great holiday of whichever kind, and see you next month!