School's in, and so is writing time
We've already had our kids back in school for a month, which feels crazy! After navigating all the craziness from the initial few weeks, we settled into a rhythm. Weirdly, as a parent, school's return is an exciting time for me. The kids are going to bed earlier—with the downside that I am, too—and the mornings are reclaimed! My "mandatory" writing time is between 7:45 and 8:30, with optional keep-going time in the evenings if I want. This is the time between my return from school dropoff and when my job starts. Fortunately, I work from home, so the commute time turns into writing time!
Publishing News
For Transmentation | Transformation, the third and final installment of the Formation Saga has undergone copyedits, and we returned them last week. We might see another round, but for now things are just about wrapped! It's exciting to be done, and I'll say I learned much about writing from working with four other talented writers. I'm grateful to have known them and even more so to have worked with them.
What I'm Writing
My agent sent my book into the world of publishing, and we even got our first rejection already! I was strangely excited for the quick rejection, as it made things feel "real." I will now attempt to ignore that it is out there while I work on other things.
I finished my short story co-authored with Liz Sinden Pipher, and turned it in. I expect edits will be necessary, but the hard part is done. I'm also working on another story set in the Many Worlds universe, this one set on Drot (if you know you know).
I'm working on my second revision pass on a new fantasy novel I wrote, and other than the end maybe needing some slower pacing, it's shaping up! As I go through, I note stuff that I need to fix if I don't have an idea or it makes me go backward, and I'm happy to say my "To Revise" list is definitely shorter. Progress! I hope to have it finished ahead of November, at least well enough for anyone interested in giving me feedback, and then start outlining a new novel I had an idea for.
What I'm Playing
Still playing Marvel things, but I've moved focus to Marvel Crisis Protocol: Alliances! This game came out September 4th, and I assembled then painted it all in a day. We went to DragonCon with the kids, so I wasn't able to do all that until we returned after Labor Day.
The game is really fun, and uses Marvel Crisis Protocol mechanics but simplified and with a level up system. The AI is really fast to play and I tried to lure the kids to play. My son lost interest but my daughter got very excited about the exploding crit mechanic and we have a plan to play this week after school.
Marvel Crisis Protocol is also a competitive game (same name but without "Alliances") and my son really wanted me to play that with him. So it sounds like we'll be scratching the cooperative and competitive itches!
What I Painted
Here are all the miniatures from the Alliances game. They were push fit, so no glue needed, but I glued mine anyway.
From the Mouths of Babes
We went to DragonCon! No cute phrases this time, just some pictures. They love going because people ask to take a picture with them and it makes them feel like celebrities.
