News from Squire's Isle

To anyone who thinks my writing has dried up this year, you would not be wrong! It looks like I’ve gone from 100,000 words a month to barely anything at all. The truth is that I AM writing, it’s just that it’s stuff I can’t share, and it requires a heck of a lot of detail work. Firstly I wrote the first draft of an official Stargate SG-1 novel for Fandemonium! I adore SG-1, but the pressure of writing something that was contracted and would have to pass through MGM’s filter was… daunting. I wanted to go through every scene with a fine-toothed comb to make sure it was juuust right. But I got a draft I’m happy with, the contract is winging its way overseas as we speak for their John Hanc– wait, what’s the British version of a signature? The… Magna Carta? Well, whatever it’s called.

Secondly, Tello Films asked me to write a script for a webseries based on Riley Parra! So I had to devote some time to getting that just right and perfect. Plus I had to teach myself how to write a script! Scrivener is amazing, and amazingly intuitive, but there was still a bit of poking that needed to be done before I could produce anything on it. And there were a lot of changes that had to be made story-wise… for instance, if I didn’t alter Priest’s introduction to the series, there was a chance she wouldn’t show up at all. As important as Priest is, that would be wholly unacceptable. But I found a way to get her in without compromising the story. I think it’s gonna be great. ;D

Now one of the main things that people may be scrambling for is another Underdogs story. The production of those may seem to have dried up a whole lot lately, and I can’t blame that on Riley/Stargate. The problem there is… time. There’s barely a month (about six weeks, I think) between “Beware of Wolf’s last scene and opening scene to Dogs of War. That’s not a whole lot of time to have stories. There’s also the fact I’m writing these semi-chronologically, and right now (March 2014) is AFTER the events of the third novel (which takes place during the month of January 2014) so I’m sort of stuck thinking of what they’re doing now (uh, assuming they both survive Book 3. YOU NEVER KNOW. I could pull a Joss Whedon (I will not pull a Joss Whedon (at least not with this particular novel))). I could always go back and fill in some space between Underdogs 1 and 2 (and that’s what I’m planning to do) but the muse doesn’t like throwing things in reverse. I want to address things that happen in Dogs of War, but I know I can’t do that until summer (at the very least).

So I do have inspiration, I have a lot of stories for Ari and Dale. I just can’t tell them without spoiling you for some big developments that are waiting to be explored in the novel.

And that’s the gist! Big projects all around, a little life stuff I won’t go into, and trying to get back into the swing of things while also knowing I could be called away at any moment to work on one of the big projects. I started this year knowing I more than likely would not hit 1,000,000 words again, so I’m not too bummed that I’m not keeping up with the past few years’ output. The few things I HAVE written are so big that I’m not worried there aren’t more little stories to share freely. Maybe now I can focus on those little stories a little more. ::fingers crossed::