I made a little more progress on the epilogue of EM3. I would’ve liked to have done more, but I didn’t get started until late and by then, the mascot was agitating for me to go to bed. I’d like to get things wrapped before the weekend is out, but we’ll see how things go. Stay tuned.

I made a little more progress on the epilogue of EM3. Probably another day or two of work and I’ll have it done. Stay tuned.

I finished Chapter 26 of EM3 and started on the epilogue. Just a little bit more to go. I need to figure out what I’ll be working on next. Stay tuned.

I did some writing on Chapter 26 of EM3. Probably another day is all it’ll take to finish that and then it’s on to the epilogue. Here’s to wrapping things up by the end of the week. Stay tuned.

I was able to finish Chapter 25 of EM3 at long last. Rather than switching over to the next story in the rotation, I’m going to continue to work on EM3 this week with the intention of finishing it. That will leave me covered for three cycles (counting this week) and give me a little lead time to work on whatever’s coming next. While the part of me that thinks about wordcount finds this one coming up a bit short, so long as I remain a web novelist, it really doesn’t matter. Ultimately, I’ve always been of the opinion that a novel should be no longer and no shorter than the story requires. Anyway, I’ve got the task before me and now I just have to do it. Stay tuned.

It has been too dang long, but I finally had a spark of inspiration that allowed me move forward in the stories I’m currently serializing. You see I knew what I wanted to happen in Chapter 25 of EM3, but I kept getting bogged down with the details, which was getting in the way of me actually getting started. You see, I was actually going to be rewinding time a bit from where we left off in Chapter 24, so you could see what Mordekai was talking about as it unfolded. However, as I said, I was getting stuck on the details of how to make it work. Well, I decided to do away with the rewind and just continue from the present. It’s a bit cheap of me, I know, but oftentimes the best way to navigate an obstacle is to go around it. I managed to get almost 1000 words written, and the chapter has at most another 25% to go, probably less. The release will still have to wait until next week, but at least I’ll have it ready by then. At this point, my estimate is that the book will clock in around 50K words, which is a bit lighter than I’d like, but seeing as how I’m not currently pursuing traditional publication in the US market, it’s not something I need to worry about all that much. (Just wait and see if I ever get around to translating my work and trying to pitch it here in Japan, only to be told my stuff is too long for a light novel. Of course, for longer light novels, they tend to split it up into two or three parts, so that shouldn’t be a problem.) Anyway, now that I’m making progress again, I’m feeling pretty good. Now if I can only keep it up. Stay tuned.

I don’t really deserve credit for it, but I did a little more work on Chapter 21 of TWH, spending more time under the hood sorting out some things for the setting of the chapter. And because I can’t seem to stay focused on a single task, I went back to Colony Flipper to write a bit there, springing off some additional work I’d done on my planetary database the other day. Well, I’m definitely not making my deadline and I suppose we can look forward to me switching over to two weeks of not making any progress on EM3. Yay. -_- Well, maybe I’ll end up surprising us all. You can’t ever tell. Stay tuned.

Yes, yes, I’m still playing around with Colony Flipper, and as part of my research, I’m compiling data on the planets, moons and such in the solar system to serve as a reference point for other worlds. This will also help with the Space Arc, but it’s still time that’s not being spent on the stories currently in serialization. If I find myself still coming up short, I’ll go ahead and give you the next chapter of RttW instead. Stay tuned.

For those looking for progress on the stories currently in serialization, this isn’t the news you want to hear, but I did some more work on Colony Flipper, writing dialog, working on character profiles and doing more general research. As much as I enjoy this stage of the creative process, I really do need to be returning my attention to the stories I have out now. I’ll see what I can make happen in the coming days. Stay tuned.

Between a fairly busy week at work and me having very little energy once I get back to the ranchero, I haven’t gotten any writing on EM3 or site work done. However, something unusual happened. My coworkers tend to spam messages on LINE and in the LINE app, there was this banner ad for a browser game called ZeroDora. I clicked on it out of curiosity and it seemed like a fairly generic sim with a scifi coat of paint. As a game, there’s not much going for it, but the setting managed to stir my imagination and a concept quickly took shape.

Tentatively, I’m calling this project Colony Flipper, the story of a real estate developer charged with rehabilitating an abandoned offworld colony to turn a profit for a shady corporation. It’s an opportunity to look at the Cross Arc from a very different perspective than any of the other stories I’ve written so far or any that I’ve planned before. I know I have other, bigger priorities at the moment, but it’d be a waste to not capitalize on this surge of creativity while it lasts.

Things should slow down a fair bit during finals week, so I’m hoping to turn things around then. The first half of next week will continue to be busy, but from Thursday on, I should have a little more time for the story and site restoration work I want to be doing. If only I have the energy to meet the demands of the tasks ahead… Anyway, at least you know something’s getting done. Now if I could just start meeting quotas and deadlines again… Stay tuned.