2015 has been a productive year. THE 13TH PARAGON books, SCRAPPER and FROM ASHES OF EMPIRES both released and the follow-up novella, THE HOLLOW-HEARTED is nearly ready to go. On a more personal front, there seems to be an infiltrator into the humble Bryers abode, one that seems hell-bent on arriving soon whether I’m ready for him or not. Yes, horrifyingly enough, a tiny version of me (with some genetic input from the wife, of course) is on the way. And with a due date of October 11th fast approaching, the odds of my plans coming to fruition before said baby’s arrival are dwindling fast.
The plan, of course, is to finish the first draft of Book Four before that kid’s butt is slapped in the delivery room. Knowing that, I kicked off the new book in late June. At the time, FOUR here was supposed to be a svelte novella just like THE HOLLOW-HEARTED, and become the first in the Eyes of Odyssium sub-series. Had that plan stuck, I’d have reached that completion date well over a month ago. As it stands here as we near the end of September, FOUR already stands as a full novel, at around 72,000 words and counting. The good news is that I’m in Act III of the book. The bad news is that Act III is intricate, as it turns into a completely different type of book from the rest of FOUR. So finishing it in, say, two weeks is asking a lot. But we’ll see! I’m going to put my nose to the grindstone a bit more in these coming weeks, so if all goes well, I can set FOUR down for a bit and concentrate on baby number ONE…well, my first bio-kid. Second kid overall, though.
So will I make it? Oh, the tension, the horror! I’ve already had to let a few goals slide (the release of HOLLOW-HEARTED pre-October—need the artwork for that to happen, as well as a convention appearance, due to other circumstances), but this one I’m clinging to for some reason. Good reason, I’d like to think, as newborn baby phase is all “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” for me. I don’t know what my writing time will look like with a wriggly little thing loitering around, but I’m expecting very little in the way of writing time. Since my new approach to writing is to not take big breaks during the process, this bugger could conceivably create a rather Grand Canyon-esque fissure between birth and a return of some of that aforementioned time.
But overall, despite what I led my wife to believe, I’m a little excited. I have no idea what to expect, but either way, it’ll be an adventure that will likely rival anything I could write.
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