I did it. I finished the rough draft of The Sentience Series early Thursday morning. When this COVID-19 quarantine situation started in March, my goal was to get Domino through beta reader rewrites and draft the second book in the series. Six months later not only is Domino rewritten after beta reads and a manuscript evaluator, but the entire series is written. They're all novellas, ranging from 12-16 chapters, but the idea was for the combined series to be the length of a long novel:
Three of the four novellas are rough drafts that need a lot of work, but at least they're written. It's a nice surprise to have the whole series out of my head and on my laptop (and several backup drives). Perhaps that and the ability to work from home have been the only pleasant surprises in this upside down quarantine world. I must say that 2020 has been a boon for my writing. Three awards, acceptance to two anthologies, back to writing short stories, and finding new opportunities all over the place. It turns out that a lousy year is great for art. Go figure.
Go figure too that I managed to write a novella scifi series - completing half of Book Three and all of Book Four in a period of about 4 weeks after Dad died, and yet I'm getting forgetful in all other areas of life. How can I write a novella series and forget two webinars at work? Or the thank you notes that Mom asked me to help her write three times? Or to turn off the ceiling fan after my workout? Or that I already fed Zack and Bubbles, so they got fed twice (not that they complained)? Or to do my laundry? Or to put the trash out? I keep telling myself that I'll have more mental RAMS available now that the writing is done, but I know the truth: I'm off. Of course I am. Dad's illness and death were quite a trial that hit hard, fast, and without much warning. Maybe I am hiding behind my writing and work. I suppose we'll see, now that the writing is back to short stories. And there's an interesting thing too - I couldn't get the short story thing to stick until now. I always got distracted and away from it, but 2020 keeps pulling me back to it. I guess that's a good thing. For all of my success I've also amassed more rejections than I've had in a while, but that's because I'm back to putting more stuff out there with the short stories.
Life is strange.
Another strange thing I picked up was binge watching too much TV. During August when things got bad with Dad, we started watching several TV series, and I quit doing any reading except my daily Bible reading. Now that was alarming, because I love to read. So we sat down and focused, and we've been rolling through several series a bit at a time. In the past month, we finally finished Cobra Kai, His Dark Materials, Better Call Saul (Season 5), and we're caught up on The Boys. I used to say I didn't understand how people got hooked on so many TV shows at a time, because I can usually only keep up with maybe 2-3. I see it now. It's escapism, and I fell right in it. Judgment rescinded, and withheld. I get it now.
I feel like a yo-yo these days: up and down. Grief sucks, and it's not a journey I'm taking with enthusiasm. But I also realize that I can't avoid it, and it's best to face it head on and deal with it. Writing helps, so it's probably a good thing that things are going good there, and to keep up with the short story thing now that the novella series is drafted. I'm back to reading again as well. For those who wonder how I did it, not having to dress up, do hair and makeup, and commute to and from an office give me more writing/reading time, and it adds up. Then again, I am an opportunist.
So I'm back, and I'm plugging along. I hope all of you are staying healthy, safe, and well. You take care, and have a great week.
Bye!
- Domino, Book One of The Sentience Series
- Phantasm, Book Two of The Sentience Series
- Revenant, Book Three of The Sentience Series
- Inversion, Book Four of The Sentience Series
Three of the four novellas are rough drafts that need a lot of work, but at least they're written. It's a nice surprise to have the whole series out of my head and on my laptop (and several backup drives). Perhaps that and the ability to work from home have been the only pleasant surprises in this upside down quarantine world. I must say that 2020 has been a boon for my writing. Three awards, acceptance to two anthologies, back to writing short stories, and finding new opportunities all over the place. It turns out that a lousy year is great for art. Go figure.
Go figure too that I managed to write a novella scifi series - completing half of Book Three and all of Book Four in a period of about 4 weeks after Dad died, and yet I'm getting forgetful in all other areas of life. How can I write a novella series and forget two webinars at work? Or the thank you notes that Mom asked me to help her write three times? Or to turn off the ceiling fan after my workout? Or that I already fed Zack and Bubbles, so they got fed twice (not that they complained)? Or to do my laundry? Or to put the trash out? I keep telling myself that I'll have more mental RAMS available now that the writing is done, but I know the truth: I'm off. Of course I am. Dad's illness and death were quite a trial that hit hard, fast, and without much warning. Maybe I am hiding behind my writing and work. I suppose we'll see, now that the writing is back to short stories. And there's an interesting thing too - I couldn't get the short story thing to stick until now. I always got distracted and away from it, but 2020 keeps pulling me back to it. I guess that's a good thing. For all of my success I've also amassed more rejections than I've had in a while, but that's because I'm back to putting more stuff out there with the short stories.
Life is strange.
Another strange thing I picked up was binge watching too much TV. During August when things got bad with Dad, we started watching several TV series, and I quit doing any reading except my daily Bible reading. Now that was alarming, because I love to read. So we sat down and focused, and we've been rolling through several series a bit at a time. In the past month, we finally finished Cobra Kai, His Dark Materials, Better Call Saul (Season 5), and we're caught up on The Boys. I used to say I didn't understand how people got hooked on so many TV shows at a time, because I can usually only keep up with maybe 2-3. I see it now. It's escapism, and I fell right in it. Judgment rescinded, and withheld. I get it now.
I feel like a yo-yo these days: up and down. Grief sucks, and it's not a journey I'm taking with enthusiasm. But I also realize that I can't avoid it, and it's best to face it head on and deal with it. Writing helps, so it's probably a good thing that things are going good there, and to keep up with the short story thing now that the novella series is drafted. I'm back to reading again as well. For those who wonder how I did it, not having to dress up, do hair and makeup, and commute to and from an office give me more writing/reading time, and it adds up. Then again, I am an opportunist.
So I'm back, and I'm plugging along. I hope all of you are staying healthy, safe, and well. You take care, and have a great week.
Bye!
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