So, Dry Ice: A Short Story Collection is out in the universe. It's available as an ebook from all good retailers, and also in paperback and hardback via Amazon (I may release hardcopies elsewhere later but still haven't decided).
Aside from doing all the publishing stuff for Dry Ice, what have I been up to? Let's consult my tracking spreadsheet of wonder...
Hmm, my last writing update was in the middle of Feb, so let's include February's writing numbers here as well. February was a month for editing, as I primarily worked on the initial edits of Spider's Hub. During the month I cut 9.5K from the novel. Overall, I trimmed the draft by nearly 16K, to bring it down to a fighting weight of 80.2K. Which feels on the short side for me, but I'm liking how it's turned out. So much so that I'm considering bringing the release date for it forward from August, as I don't think the next round of edits will need to be overly extensive. That will depend, however, on how I progress with the current novel draft.
I finished this editing round for Spider's Hub on the 26th of Feb. Along with other editing done during the month I trimmed a total of 10.7K from novels and shorts. One of the shorts edited during the month was 'The Coffee Moon Bounty,' which is included in the collection. I also started edits on 'Aftershocks,' which is now up here and on my simily page. That story started at over 5.1K and was whittled down to a lean, mean 3.7K by mid-March, for a total cut of 1.4K. Numbers, amirite? ๐ Taking the stats out of the equation, I'm so much happier with the story now. Why not go read it if you haven't already?
As far as new words during Feb (not including blog posts, etc), my spreadsheet tells me I wrote 4.3K. Those were written across 'The Coffee Moon Bounty' and on the outlines for the novel I'm currently working on (as yet very poorly titled so I'll leave it nameless here). I didn't properly start on the outlines until March, however. And yes, I do mean 'outlines' in the plural rather than singular. This novel is multi-POV, so I decided to write an outline for each POV character. It worked out okay. So far, at least.
Moving onto March, then. I completed the outlines plus other worldbuilding by mid-March, and started on the novel itself on the 23rd. Seeing as I've outlined the POV characters separately, I'm also drafting their stories separately, and will then meld them together once finished. An interesting idea in theory but let's see how it works in practice! ๐
I also started a new short story in March, tentatively titled, 'The Ides of Loneliness.' So far I've only spent one day on it, for a scene and a bit, totaling around 500 words. Editing-wise, I've been plugging away at 'Entangled,' a short story I drafted across 3 writing sessions over a 5-day period in January. I'm getting close to completing the initial edits on it. So far I've only cut around 500 words, which actually brings it down to around the work count I envisaged it would be.
March's overall stats? 30K written, 700 words cut.
April's gotten off to a slow start for various reasons. 2.5K written on the novel and 162 words edited, all from 'Entangled.'
This month's goals? Get a decent chunk of the novel drafted. Complete 'The Ides of Loneliness' draft. Finish edits on 'Entangled,' and properly begin edits on 'The Sentigo River Expedition,' the other Jazz story I wrote for the collection but which would've in no way been ready to go by publishing time. And maybe jot some notes for yet another novel idea that's bouncing around the ole noggin.
Thanks for stopping by and see you all again soon!
S.C. Mae