Exhale
When I was in graduate school chasing down a degree in Custodial Science, one of my mentors said something along the lines of, “if you choose to be a writer, it will cost you your friends and family.”

A little grim, all things considered. Of course I blew it off.

Thankfully, that didn’t happen this time around. My friends and family (i.e. all of YOU) were amazingly supportive over the last few months. More than any novel sales, good friends are a true measure of a successful life.

I’m a testament to the inequality of the world; for no good reason, for no inherent qualities of my own, life has been nothing but great to me. And watch, here I'm going to complain about my golden-soled life. Sad. Maybe this time next decade I'll be a little wiser.

4 Things Not to Schedule When Writing a Novel:

-Do NOT schedule a 200k word project due two months into the 5 months allotted for writing your book. (Would do it again.)

-Do NOT watch your wife/therapist/partner in crime leave for the East Coast, the weekend before your novel is due. (She's back. Whew.)

-Do NOT buy a house the weekend before you novel is due. (How often can you write "her attorney in fact" in twenty minutes?)

-Do NOT attempt to move into a new home the weekend before your novel is due. (Um...not quite done. Is it June yet? Not in Japan!)

But of course, there has to be a catch. If I was offered the chance to write a novel again, and with all the same conflicts of time and imagination, I’d do it in minute.

Well, actually I’d talk it over (more) with Heather first. Thank goodness we don’t have children.

And so … for all the friends and family that I fell out of contact with (especially these last 3 months), apologies for my absence, and thanks for your patience. Special thanks to Jeff and Mike who kicked butt at all the right times. Check out their blogs and tell them they rock.

What’s next? A quick d20 proposal I need to get out of my system, then one or two short stories followed by either a game or another book. We’ll see how things unfold.

//H


P.S. To all my fellow unpublished novelists:

Remember that I am, and remain, unpublished in the realm of novels. Zip, nada, zilch. And here's the thing: 90k really isn't that long. Get after it every day and you'll be done inside of 6 months or less. Crazy, but true.