The last day of February always comes too soon. I wrote earlier that February was more like my beginning of the year, and that still feels true as March is on its way in. Tomorrow I head to the DMV for a new license in a new state, and that’s always both exciting and exhausting. It will be my fourth state going through the registration process, and it’s never really that awful (except the picture part), but it’s not exactly something to look forward to, just something to be happy about being done once it’s over.
I’ve written 24k words in the last 5 days. Yeah, that’s an average of 4.9k a day. Yeah, I’m badass. Yeah, I’m going to have a rough time editing, but you can’t edit a blank page, so there! I’ve just introduced some really exciting and ridiculous characters in the second book, and I couldn’t be more pleased.
I’m glad these books are coming along so quickly because I’m just elated to get the final products out into the world. It’s still a long way off, and I’ll absolutely give them all the time they need, but it feels so tangible and executable. And maybe this is just all the cleaning chemicals I inhaled today, but I really think I have something magical here. I mean, magical for me–it’s been a lot of fun, I’m in this groove, I’m super jazzed and pumped and feeling groovy…yeah, it might be the chemicals.
I just downloaded GIMP today. I’ve had it before, but it’s a monster of a program, and though I think I’m passable with design, I’m not graphic artist. I got it because I wanted to play around with cover design. I know, smart indie authors buy their covers–I am very likely to buy mine for this project! But I am considering commissioning a fantasy artist for images that I would then need to manipulate into covers. It’s a big undertaking, and could be costly, so I’m playing around with things now in hopes that I’ll know for sure sooner rather than later what I have to do. I’m just in love with this project, and I want to give it my all.
I’ve got a couple other projects brewing. I really wanted to be able to replace my Reader Magnet by the end of March, but I don’t think that’s happening. Maybe this year! I talked to Husband about my Christmas horror standalone “special” today, and got sort of excited about producing that for this year, and we also talked about The Lockport Mysteries and how those might be my next series. I’ve sort of planned them out as five books, so it’s a big undertaking, but hopefully I can prove to myself with this fantasy romance that I’m capable of something like that. It will be rapid release too, so I probably need a standalone or two tucked into the middle there to feel like I’m producing something.
Oh, and, I cut my hair last night. It’s still pretty long, but I finally got rid of the bleached ends that weren’t doing anything but getting tangled anyway. I should have dyed it before heading to the DMV tomorrow, and I guess there’s still some time…okay, enough of this–off to go do that!
A.K. Caggiano 