Well, Moonfire Games theme update is finally up. I was eight projects behind, and while most of them are relatively short stubs, I think I can set it aside and just try to flesh out a project page a month for a while. I don't feel too bad because, frankly, no one uses my libraries and applications. Or, I have to assume since I don't get feedback for what I have done. I'm not bitter, I don't mean to, since most of what I do on the programming side is not sexy.

But, tonight signals the change back to writing. The third beta-reader won't get me anything for another week or two (the fourth is reading DG which is on an entirely different writing track), so I'm going to work on integrating the feedback I got for the chapters so far and see if I can get a second round beta-reading going on.

This is going to be the painful one. I cut so many words from the story, I don't know if it will hold up. At this point, I've gotten six people who told me that I should cut anything except for tightening up the language. Assuming that is 10-20k words, it still puts me way too high.

So... I'm having a doubt about word length. I know it is a stupid thing to hang on, but the fact is, the Big Publishers don't really publish huge stuff by unknowns. And, statistically, it looks like 80k word is the "sweet spot" for novels and 100k is a big story. I'm going to try getting Flight at the 100k word point and see what I can do. If I absolutely feel the story is hemorrhaging, I'll up it to 120k but I want to make that my absolute limit.

I'm going to try focusing mostly writing for the rest of the year (rough plan as usual). This includes seeing if I can get another commission out there, finish up the three I have. Finish Victim and Casting which both have a "good" chance of getting published, plus trimming down Flight. That should keep me busy.

In October, I'm going back to Illinois for the weekend to see Carrie Fisher at Wishful Drinking. I dislike travel, but that is an adventure where staying home isn't. And while writing is exciting, it needs the adventuring experience (I'm level 4!) to make it great. :)

I feel pretty good about the next few months, plus work is going to be winding up Real Soon™.