I didn’t do any writing last month, so I thought this would be a good time to greet the new year by just sort of generally putting my thoughts in order on everything I’m doing.
Writing Stuff
The Shadow of the Ruin trilogy is complete. This latest rewrite was the final one I’m going to undertake prospectively. If (when!) it gets picked up by an agent and eventually a publisher, it will doubtless go through a number of edits, and when that time comes I will be happy to put more work into it. The story is my love child of ten years; I’ve spent so long living inside the heads of those characters that I could probably write them in my sleep at this point.
But I’m also ready to move on. The story is finished. I think it’s good. But it’s time for it to stand up as it is, and time for me to work on something else while I work the querying scene in the background.
On that subject, I finally got around to updating the ‘About’ and ‘Projects’ sections of my blog. No longer will I be claiming that The Shadow of the Ruin is in the process of being rewritten!
It is written.
And with The Shadow of the Ruin complete to my satisfaction, it’s time to turn my creative attention fully to my next project. I’m not going to spoil too much, but I do have a pretty good idea what it’s going to be.
Want some hints?
- Single POV, in a big departure from The Shadow of the Ruin
- Standalone novel, not a trilogy
- Closer to gritty fantasy than epic fantasy
I’ve learned a lot writing The Shadow of the Ruin for ten years, and I’m more than eager to put that improvement to use plotting and writing my next project. I feel like I really hit my stride as a writer somewhere during The Gathering Darkness, but I also think I continued to improve through The Second Sundering. I’m looking forward to seeing what I can discover about myself on a brand new journey.
Blog Update
I’ve been hinting for a while that I’m planning a big overhaul of the blog, and that’s still completely true. In addition to hopefully fitting in some more updates (I want to get back to thought pieces on writing technique, plotting, world-building, all that stuff!), the big change is going to be working out some more ‘dark mode’ friendly look and feel. The current scheme is more ‘white on white’, and it’s not the easiest thing on the eyes – in either sense!
Probably before that (should be later this week), I will be writing another ‘Writer Reaction’ installment. This time, I think I might not actually spend most of it complaining!
Other Stuff (life, other interests)
On a personal level, I’m happy to report that nothing horrible happened in my life in 2022 – a major improvement over 2021. I’ve continued to photograph both professionally and for my own enjoyment, although if I’m successful with The Shadow of the Ruin I fully intend to transition to photographing only for my own creative fulfillment. I traveled to five national parks in 2022, including four (Grand Canyon, Bryce, Arches, and Canyonlands) that I’d never been to before.
In September, I competed in a national-level electric karting tournament. I didn’t win (12 out of 43, although it could easily have been more), but it was a good end to the kart racing era of my life. I really took up electric karts in 2019, and got serious through 2020 and 2021. I think I was pretty good, but all good things come to an end. The local track has moved in a direction I don’t particularly care for, and I don’t want to devote the time (and money) at this point in my life to pursuing physical racing any further.
I will continue sim racing, however. Later this month, I hope to partake in the iRacing 24 Hours of Daytona (a recreation of the real world event) with a team of fellow electric karters from the championship I did in Florida. I’m trying to make a commitment to racing once a day when possible, and hopefully that schedule will give me a good mix of enjoyment and improvement.