First Draft of *NAME REDACTED* Is Complete.
2-20-25
At long last the newest novel to join my others has arrived! It’s been since August of 2024 that I’ve been working on this book, and I had intended on it being much shorter, much more concise. However, that didn’t happen, and it is a chunky little book. There are some oohs, some aahhs, and some auuuuughs: along with plenty of Leviathans chuffing, honking, and hissing, horses braying, and Shapers shouting at their stars to energize them with Draw!
I’m not going to disclose any of the details about this one yet, as I have for Vine Vein and The Lightless, but I will someday. My plan for it is to have my editor peruse it soon, do another draft of it with their notes, and then see how I’m feeling about its potential for pitching to agents later this year. My confidence for pitching hasn’t been the highest for some time now, and I’m finding it hard to motivate myself to give it a go again.
I really just want to keep writing books. I know I should dive back into The Lightless and the Vine Vein Trilogy for new drafts, but I feel as if the book I’m going to have an agent take a chance on I might just not have written yet. I feel as if my skill level needs a One-Up Mushroom again. It’s a hard feeling to come to terms with, a hard reality. But, no one ever said it was going to be easy, did they? Therein lies some of the fun in my eyes, the difficulty, the amount of work it takes to do this, to keep doing this. Perseverance, it’s all about perseverance, and writing, writing, writing. Just when you think you’ve written enough, write some more.
With each new work I come more into my own, I shape more of the worlds I’ve created, speak more confidently in my voice.
I will get back into The Lightless this year for a drastic rewrite, and that might take up much of my time. But, I will be starting another brand new book here soon in addition to that. Also, if I can get my brain to do it, I will have more short stories to share with you all here, as I still find those extremely entertaining to write, and they are a nice break from the longform novel I’m used to writing on for months and years.
There’s just not enough room in my head nor time in the day sometimes to do everything I want to do. Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed with it all that the already impossible feeling task of becoming an author becomes that much more impossible in my mind, as I scramble and jump to do this and that, and then risk the frustration of not doing anything, or doing something subpar. Perseverance and Repose, those are the words I will bear in mind more often moving forward.
As always, I wish to thank you for taking the time to read these, and I hope you are doing well as we transition into the third month of this new year,
JMB.
