The Monster in Your Closet

Reminder: Don’t forget to enter my two-book giveaway before Friday!

Once upon a time, which for the more literal-minded among you might look like March 7, 2011, yours truly reported she’d be releasing the second book in The Glass Ball trilogy (begun by The Monster’s Daughter)  in September 2011. The third book in the trilogy would follow by roughly six months.

Oh, March 7 Deb, you’re so cute!

Hope and all things hope-like, I will make you suffer!

When I posted these deadlines, I encouraged y’all to “Remind me I am merely editing already written books, for which six months apiece was probably a lot on the excessive side.” I didn’t (a) bother mentioning that I’d begun writing another book or (b) anticipate I’d finish my first edit of TMD 2 and realize I really didn’t want to wield my pen like a pitchfork just because I could.

I took the month of June off writing. I was driving myself crazy with blogging-related endeavors, so that I felt I needed a total reset before diving into non-blogging projects with energy and a fresh perspective. I considered my works in progress occasionally during that month, deciding I’d nose-down and plow my way through:

1. Editing TMD 2 and release it to beta readers, then editors
2. Editing TMD 3 while waiting for feedback from 1 above
3. Finishing the first draft of Elelu (which has massively benefited from my experiences editing TMD)*

I greeted July determined to follow this path. My intentions are always as good, after all, as they are misguided! The problem was that I set out to write a couple hundred words in Elelu one day, only to find a veritable flood of words pouring forth.  Thus it is that one-third of the way through July I find myself going, “Welp, dammit, looks like #3 is becoming #1!”

Seriously, though. One deadline I’m absolutely going to meet? Finishing the first draft of Elelu within a month.

Really. It’s gonna happen. All my other deadlines? Those were different.

This one’s the real deal.

* As I described it in the entry Villains & pedicures, “Every several sentences, I ask myself, ‘Will editing the last few sentences make me want to jump off a roof?’ So far, I haven’t answered ‘yes’ even once, but it’s good to keep checking. This diligence now is an investment in a happier, saner future me.”