Here’s the cover for Mendleson Moony. I’m currently working on reading the proof and the final edits. It should be available sometime in mid to late March in most formats from the major stores. Sometimes Sony takes a while (Questioner’s Shadow is STILL not available there for some reason).

And here’s the back cover copy, in case you’re interested.

Fisherman Mendleson Moony lost his family in a fire. Four years later, he still mourns and has given up the sea to farm his land.

Henrietta Swooth, the Seer that has lived across the road from him for the last three years, has a secret. She knows the time and place of her death, and she must soon leave to meet it.

A vision sends her to the summer festival where she and Mendleson talk for the first time. When he touches her hand, everything changes, and not for the better.

Mendleson comes away with a desire to save her. She comes away knowing his attempts to save her will see him dead at her side.

Can Mendleson overcome his loss to find love again? Is it already too late?

Well, I suppose I should report on the 10 Day Novel project.

Of course, you probably know by now that I didn’t manage to finish the book in ten days. There are a number of reasons why I didn’t manage to finish, but primarily, it comes down to a couple simple things.

First, I had this section in the middle where I knew something was supposed to happen, but I didn’t know what. I’ve mostly got it sorted out now, but for a while, there, I had nothing.

Second, there were some life events. My daughter’s first day of kindergarten, football, more football. I should remember to NEVER schedule large blocks of time writing on the weekends during football season.

Third, I’m under quite a bit of stress because of a lack of work in my “day job”. It would certainly help if everyone using StoryBox for free bought a copy today, and would be even better if for some reason Shattered just took off and sold a couple thousand copies in the next week. Then I wouldn’t have to worry so much about a day job.

Fourth, it would have been easier to finish the book in ten days if I had stuck with a genre that I know well. I tried to stretch myself a bit, and it made things harder.

I WILL try this again, but not until football season is over. I plan to finish Mendleson Mooney in the next three weeks or so. I have to be done with it before November. I’m going to really start Fragments Nov 1 (with NaNoWriMo).

In the past couple days, I’ve managed about 1300 words total. Not exactly the kind of progress I’d hoped for.

First, I must explain that I took the weekend off. It became readily apparent when I sat down to try to work Saturday that my mind wasn’t in it. I had spent eight or more hours each day that week writing or trying to write. I was tired, and I wanted to watch football and interact with my family.

Second, I’ve really struggled with the middle of this thing. I had basically 80% of the novel plotted out: the first 40% and the last 40%. There’s about 20% in the middle that’s really got me stuck. Part of it is that I’m trying to write a different kind of story than I might normally write. The 20% in the middle really focuses on the different bits.

So what does this mean for getting the novel done in ten days? It means it’s not going to happen. The first 40% took four days. The last 40%, I suspect will take four days. The 20% in the middle will probably eat an extra week unless I find my way quickly. The project won’t drag on forever, but if things go well over the next three writing days, I might be able to finish in 14 days of writing instead of ten. That’s not so bad.

Disaster! Well, sort of. I only managed 1342 words today, mostly due to not knowing what comes next. Two days of that in a row really hurt me. I knew it was going to be tough, so I kept putting off starting until it was seriously late in the day.

But, I did finish Chapter 8, and I spent a good amount of time thinking about the next two chapters, so I now think I have a decent handle on what the next two chapters will be. My worry is that these might actually need to be split into more chapters, which will damage the chances of finishing the book in ten days.

I will do what the story needs, above all else. If I fail to finish within my ten day time frame because the story requires additional chapters and scenes, so be it. It’s not like I’ll be that upset if it takes fourteen days instead of ten.

Right now, I have eleven chapters left. I have five days to do them in. If the story doesn’t grow, I still have a good chance of finishing on time.

One thing I’ve learned. It is stupendously difficult to keep writing at a constant pace when you can hear your family in the other room and they’re doing something interesting. At 9 and 5, my kids are always doing something interesting. I want to join them, and they want me to join them.