Just wanted to let everyone know I'm still alive and still working on the two projects (FM5 and Gush) I've been working on for awhile now.
I still have no estimate for when they might be completed other than being sure it won't be in 2014. Don't fret if you don't see the status update move for a week or so and especially don't fret about the way the status update for Gush seems to be jumping around all over the place for my estimations. I do use it to keep you all informed about what I'm doing day to day (because I know long silences are what make fans more nervous than anything else), but it does sort of become a problem when I'm starting a novel like I am with Gush.
I've been playing around with length and what to include in that book. Do I write a bunch of training scenes? Do I throw you right into the death race with a small intro a la Star Wars? How long and how deep do I want the book to be? This fluctuates when you're starting the process...which is why Gush has gone from 10 chapters to 16 chapters to 13 chapters as I added and cut the outline. I even started WAY BACK WHEN, wrote 5k, decided it wasn't working, and cut it from the book. What I've ended up with and what I think I'll keep is a bit of middle ground with not doing the full training/origin but beginning with our heroes arriving a week before said death race. Yes, death race...with magic! It's going to be a fun book!
One thing I'm not sure readers realize is that even when authors aren't "writing" we're still thinking. I don't pretend that every author does things the way I do things, but for me "thinking" is an always on feature that helps the "writing" go much smoother and takes up a TON more time than the actual writing. There are some scenes in the King Henry Tapes that I've played over in my head hundreds of times in dozens of alternate outcomes before I've even put finger to keyboard to write them. The Paine reveal in FM3 was one of these...there's also a good one in FM5 and one coming up in FM7 that I continually obsess over to levels only equaled by Gollum with the One Ring.
This process is why more time is sometimes important and why I'm never going to be the kind of author that can pump out a novel ever 3-4 months. I'm selfish...they're MY toys before I share them with you.
This is sometimes why its the scenes I haven't played through my head that take me the longest to get through. Like the ones I've been working on in the last month. Not that Pocket and T-Bone forcing King Henry to take a road trip in an RV hasn't been entertaining...but why would I focus on that when I can focus on...other things?
I guess I'll stop aggravating the fanbase and just summarize with: still working on it, taking my time to make sure it's awesome, don't freak out, it's all going good, if you're well-behaved I might give you a FM5 sample chapter for Christmas.
Oh, also...I almost broke my arm! That was a close one!