Okay, so I haven’t been putting updates as much as I should, and I apologize.  I have, unfortunately, been stricken with the ever present Writer’s Block syndrome.  I sit for hours at the time with my notes and character sketches, but the words just won’t form to put on the page.  This happens to me from time to time, as it does for every writer, and it is unbelievably frustrating to deal with.  I know where I want the story to go, I know what I want to say, I just can’t for the life of me find the words that I need to get it done.

So I have been working on writing exercises, writing from prompts, picking random pictures from the internet to write stories to, and writing snippet style memoirs of around 1000 words or so.  My goal has been to write at least 2,000 words a day, and I’ve kept pretty near to that goal even if very little of what I’ve written has anything to do with my current project.  The key I’ve found is to keep the words flowing, no matter what they’re about.  If you write long enough, eventually the dam will break and your story will flow again.

And it appears that theory has worked out, FINALLY!  I am up to just over 11,000 words on Storm Tide Rising, which should put me at roughly 10% complete.  That doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you consider that about three weeks ago I had literally 0 done on this book, I’d say it’s a pretty decent start.  I’m shooting for around 100-110,000 words for this, the second book in the Blackout series, so it will be a little meatier than the first installment (Officer of the Watch).  I’m not sure yet how this delay will affect my hopeful publication deadline of late May-early June, but we’ll see.  I’m going to lose most of a week to a much-anticipated trip to Disney World with the family between now and then too, so I’ll have some writing to make up for.  I’m looking forward to the trip, though, and I hope it will help reset and recharge my creative batteries.

I am also happy to report that Officer of the Watch is still going strong on both Kindle and in paperback.  If my sales numbers hold out through the end of April with the same avg daily sales, I am on pace to top 5,000 copies sold and downloaded before May.  I am so very thankful for the prayers, encouragement, and support that you, my readers, have offered throughout this process.  I told a reader the other day that even if no one ever read a word I wrote, I’d still write…but it wouldn’t be nearly as fun or as fulfilling.