Well today is the last day of GenCon 2021. It’s family day so the ticket prices are reduced to $5. Come on downtown and enjoy some fun at the convention center. We have free dice and meeples for the little ones — while supplies last of course.
I’ll be honest, yesterday was a bit of a downer. While the exhibit hall was fuller, we saw less people at our booth. We really need a good showing to finish the Con strong. Otherwise, packing up is going to be a chore.
Fifty thousand, two hundred and forty-one (50,241) words later at 1:17 p.m. EST and this year’s NaNoWriMo competition is in the books — so to speak. 
As was last year’s WriMo, this has been a great jump-start to the next book in the Silverwood Chronicle series — Dayspring’s Heir (working title). Part of me wants to keep going and finish up the series, but Friends from Mountain Forge is waiting for revisions to begin which requires me. I now have to decide whether to shelve book five for a couple of months to get book four ready for publishing or finish out book five, first.
On the one hand, I have the momentum going for book five and that is very useful. On the other hand, I have committed to myself and a few others to have book four out this winter and if I finish book five first, the likelihood that I will do both before April is unlikely. Still on the other hand . . . wait, I only have two hands. I will keep you posted on my direction after I take a slight break this weekend.
I want to personally thank everyone who shared their supportive comments along the way, and to my family who made sacrifices all month long so I could have extended writing sessions everyday. One thing I have learned about NaNoWriMo, no matter the motivation, no matter the planning, expect bumps somewhere along the way.
A quick update on the progress of book five and my NaNoWriMo challenge. As you can see by the attached graphic, I’m struggling to stay caught up this time around. The last weekend was busy with a gaming party and travel. The travel produced a significant amount of fatigue which has taken me a day or so to recover from.
Now that I’m enjoying some warm weather in sunny Florida, I was able to get in a couple of good writing sessions. Some very exciting plot developments have occurred in Chapter 3 of Book Five. Even the author can be surprised once in a while when he discovers things he had not realized before. I think that is one of the joys of writing I love the most. I can have so much of the story planned out, but in the midst of writing it, I can will come across some facts or information that I had never considered or even realized where there until I had put them down on paper (digitally speaking of course).
I should be two-thirds of the way done today — 35k words — instead I’m just about three-fifths done. Thank you to my family for working with me through vacation and allowing me some extra time. Well, I am going to go have some fun with them right now. I will get back to writing this evening.
NaNoWriMo 2017 is well under way and I’m doing my best to stay on top of it. After a very long day at an event: Christmas at the Monroe County Fairgrounds, I still managed to craft 2008 words.
A special thanks to all of the new friends I made today while at the event. I hope your journey into the world of Teradandra or the Chel & Riley Adventures is one that makes you smile.
It was also great to meet some old friends. Nothing does an author better than to have someone walk up to you and go, “Oh yeah, I got these books last Christmas and I loved them!” I had that happen today, really! I think I even overheard one of this individuals companions go, you’ve read and read the books several times. It was all I could do not shout out loud. Needless to say, when I explained to her that there was now a book 3, she was all excited and quickly secured her copy.
I also met with a couple of individuals in which some opportunities might open up for me to go into the schools and have an author talk with some elementary students. I will keep my fingers crossed.
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! Book 4’s first draft is complete! I was able to finish chapter 16 on Thursday. It will now have to sit patiently while I finish up NaNoWriMo before we can jump into revisions and production. So, maybe by Christmas or New Years I’ll be reaching out to my editorial army for your assistance once more.
With Book 4’s manuscript wrapped up, that means I’ve rolled straight into book 5. Yes, you heard that right. Today I began Chapter 1 of Book 5, Dayspring’s Heir (working title). This is it, the grand finale. I have so many exciting things planned for this book to conclude the series, I’m ready to bust. No spoilers today; however.
Thank you for your support. If you are new to the Silverwood Chronicles or Chel & Riley Adventures, please message me and let me know how you’re enjoying the books. I’d like to hear from you.
Blessings and Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families.
Until next time, keep reading!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, we’re almost already 10 days into 2017 and I am just now getting around to posting. Maybe Rift’s attitude is starting to rub off on me a little.
So, I suppose in the first post of the year, I should reflect some on what 2016 held and then expound on what I hope 2017 will hold.
Well, in brief, 2016 was a year of challenges met and challenges not met the way we wanted it to be. The key being, Book Three should have been out by Christmas, unfortunately, I’m just now going through the editing process — more on that later. My first NaNoWriMo was a rousing success even given the fact that I was less prepared than I would have liked to have been. Thanks to a good friend, I began actively promoting my works outside of the website/Facebook by attending fairs and shows, and plan to continue to do so when it seems feasible. I released my first board game after a nearly two year development period and I’ve drafted ideas for a couple of other games, but have yet to work on them.
But enough about 2016, it’s so last year. 2017 has a lot of promise. I fully expect to have Book Three released in the next few weeks. Book Four is coming along nicely and could be released as early as this summer. My long dormant Chel & Riley Adventure series should get a new installment later this year, but I’ve yet to determine what to do. Finally, I hope to start the final book in the Silverwood Chronicles by year’s end for release in 2018. This is, of course, on top of my day job and job as a father, husband and friend. Let me get this straight, there’s how many days in a year? 400 at least, right?
Now onto my updates.
Book Three edits have been pouring in now over the last couple of weeks. I can’t thank my volunteer army of editors enough. I have many hours of work before the manuscript can be completed, and I still have two or three more editor’s who are planning on submitting corrections, so I can only hope that I have the manuscript submitted by the end of January. The good news is that my creative consultant is pretty happy with the initial cover design this time around. If you recall, Book Two created a bit of controversy between me and she. I had originally planned on setting up a vote for the cover campaign again this time around, but she immediately approved of the design and I have to admit that I’m pretty happy with it myself. Its still a mock-up, but if you look at it and want to share your thoughts, I’m interested in hearing from you.
Book Four has made only minimal progress since the end of NaNoWriMo. Part of this is due to “burn-out”, then there was vacation and the holidays, and lastly is the arrival of Book Three edits. As you can imagine, and hopefully appreciate, getting Book Three released has to be my priority right now. As it stands, Book Four has nine complete chapters and three or four partial chapters. Okay, I’m to lazy at this point to go and check my facts. I’m going off a rather strung-out memory. I did learn a few things when reviewing thoughts and feelings about Book Three, that warrants some additional material for Book Four. This means I may have to restructure it a little and re-write a few areas, but I have till May to complete it. Did you catch the subtle, self-imposed deadline there?
One last thing. As I mentioned above in my goals for 2017, I’m looking for opportunities to not only present my works, but also engage people in the craft of creative writing. I have had the privilege in the distant past of meeting with an elementary school and talk about writing in general and share my Chel & Riley stories. If you know of any schools in the area (let’s keep it to the State of Indiana for now) that would entertain the idea of me stopping in and spending 30 minutes to an hour talking and/or reading with your children, I would be happy to set aside some time in my calendar to do that. If your organization is planning a festival / fair in which an author would welcome to sign books and talk about writing, please let me know. If you have another type of opportunity that I haven’t thought of, please reach out to me on Facebook or email and I’d love to talk with you.
Here’s to a productive and exciting 2017 (did I hear someone say “what’s left of it” in a snarky voice) full of adventure, and meeting new friends both real and fictional.
I’ve taken the last couple of weeks off to catch up with all of the other things that got set aside during November’s NaNoWriMo challenge. Now with Christmas and the New Years right around the corner, I wanted to take a moment and say thank you to everyone who has joined either the Silverwood Chronicles or Chel & Riley family of readers.
Speaking of special days, the Silverwood Chronicles turned two just a few days ago. I’m very excited about what’s to come in the next few months. Book Three is currently in editing and is still going to be released next month. Book Four which was started during November, is moving along rather nicely. Ten chapters are complete and I’ve managed to add a little over 1,000 words to it since November.
Chel & Riley have seen a small surge in sales at the last two events and I have plans to start work on a new Chel & Riley project in between Book Four and Five of Silverwood.
Mostly, I just wanted to wish everyone the best and happiest holiday season. I still have some books that I can get out to you this week in time for Christmas, so, jump over to the products page of my website and order a set of books for that special someone in your life.
One last teaser. Those of you that have challenged me to convert Guardian of the Silverwood into an audio format, I’ve just procured a semi-professional USB microphone. Over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to try my hand at reading my own book, aloud. I need to build a sound cabinet, first so as to reduce the amount of external noise, so once that is complete, I’ll begin reading chapters and I plan on posting the first few, just to see what everyone thinks.
Until next time, Blessings to you all and Happy Reading!
I just wanted to take just a brief moment and give everyone an update. Today marks day seven of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). If you have been following me, you know that I have signed up for the challenge to write 50,000 words or more during the course of November. I have chosen as my project to continue work on the Silverwood Chronicles of which I recently completed the second draft of book three this weekend.
Book Four, entitled “Friends from Mountain Forge” is well underway. Two full chapters have been completed and a prologue of sorts. I will begin chapter three tomorrow with a current word count of 12,505 words so far.
So far, this adventure in writing has been challenging as it has been fun. Chapter three will be interesting as it is the last chapter that I currently have any kind of outline created for. After that, we’ll have to see what happens. I may continue to write using my unfettered imagination, or I may have to take a day and focus on building out more of a structure before continuing on. At this point, I’m not sure. I have about three or four days to decide before I’m forced into a decision.
Speaking of five days — see how I did that — don’t forget that Christmas at the Fair Grounds is this Saturday from 8am – 3pm. Please share this with your reading friends. I will be promoting both the Silverwood Chronicles and the children’s series, Chel & Riley Adventures while I’m there. I will also be demoing the Chel & Riley Board game that you see advertised on my website. Any of these items would make a great gift for someone in your circle of family and friends.
My Creative Consultant will be there and she will be showcasing some custom sketches that will most likely be included in book three. We may also have some alternate covers for you to peruse and give us feedback on.
Please share this with your Facebook friends. Encourage anyone in the Monroe County area to come out and say “Hi!” I would love to catch up and see what new adventures have been happening in your life.
Until next time, Blessing to you, and happy reading!
Last week, Chel & Riley made a return visit to the place where it all began a little over fifteen years ago. After almost a five year absence, my good friend Chel invited me — Riley — to tell our adventure in the haunted house. We covered just the highlights of the adventure during our three night event and left the kids with a bit of a cliffhanger. Any child that comes back to the start of AWANA will received an autographed copy of Chel & Riley’s Haunted House Adventure compliments of Morgantown Baptist Church.
I must say I was very nervous on the first night. It had been what seemed like forever since we’d last performed. But once we got on stage and in character, the old chemistry came roaring back — at least that’s what I felt, you’ll have to ask the children if they felt the magic. I forgot how much energy it takes to perform even a short sketch such as these. At the end of each evening, I was very encouraged, but I was also very tired.
A special thanks goes out to my friends Brian and Ben for putting together a nifty set. Chel & Riley usually don’t get to work with a real, honest-to-goodness set. Thanks also to Scott for stepping in as Chel & Riley’s pal Sagon and for the spooking the children with the sound effects. And finally, a warm, humble thanks goes out to my good friend Julie aka Chel for putting together this reunion.