An indie author’s regular spoiler-free update on his writing, editing, cover design, marketing, publishing, website maintenance, and blogging. Issue 94.
This week in one word: bitty.
my_writing_week
Previously on WWW…
I’ve very nearly finished reading Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler, so my review should go live on Monday or Tuesday. Beyond that, my priorities for next week are 1) complete this pass of revisions to The Spike Volume 2, and 2) decide what I’m doing with the cover for The Spike Volume 1 second edition.
Again this week, my attention was divided across more different tasks than I expected.
Most importantly, I reached the end of part 3 on my revisions of The Spike Volume 2, but there were still a few changes I hadn’t found homes for on the first sweep. I was going to move on to the epilogue, but decided it made more sense to go back and add everything for all three parts, in case something impacts the epilogue.
Now I’ve gone through the whole story again and have it fresh in my mind, it’s easier to find the right place for each revision I want to make.
It’s very bitty work, and I don’t like to start it when I’m time-limited (such as during a lunch break) because if I’m going to pull something apart to revise it, I wouldn’t want to leave it in pieces and come back to it later, potentially having forgotten what I intended. That’s part of the reason I’ve skipped between tasks this week.
I continued writing part 2 of my publication blogpost series, a collection of posts that are planned to go live around the time The Spike Volume 1 second edition is published.
I wrote in the last WWW that I had three new ideas for a cover for The Spike Volume 1 second edition. This week, I tried out the easiest of those ideas, and today I’ve come to the conclusion I’m going to try one of the others.
The idea I like most has a link to the covers for each of the two parts, but it’s the most difficult to create. I’m going to give it a go, but before I do, I need to do the last part of detail on the cover for The Spike 1.1_Application_Infiltration, so I can replicate it on the Volume 1 cover.
On Tuesday, I published my review of Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler. It’s a thinker that lacks emotional punch, but is worth reading for its interesting ideas.
And yesterday, I finished reading and started writing my review of The Dark Side of Super by Matthew Siadak. This book is an entertaining collection of short stories that combine into one arc about the drawbacks of having superpowers. My review is scheduled to go live on Monday.
Also yesterday, I began reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, which I’m enjoying so far, and it sparked another new story idea, which I’ve codenamed Project Grim. I’m not going to work on it anytime soon, but I’ve made a note of it for the future.
My eagerness to work on Project Lawless Fang has faded, mostly because it’s very relevant to what’s going on in the news right now but might not be by the time I’ve finished it. I’d need to dedicate all my time to it immediately and pause work on The Spike, which I don’t want to do, and even that might not be enough. It feels like a risk I don’t want to take.
I’ve considered turning it into a novella, something shorter that’ll be quicker to complete, but my inclination is that wouldn’t do the idea justice. And I’d need to spend quite a lot of time brainstorming and outlining before I could be sure either way.
It’s shelved for now, but I might change my mind.
Last week, I set a new record for my creativity vs consumption percentage of 57%, and I didn’t expect to repeat it this week, especially not after I gave myself Thursday evening off cos my brain was asleep (I did some writing in my lunch break to continue my streak of 834 days).
I hit 51% this week to make it nine weeks in a row I’ve reached at least 50/50.
I find maintaining streaks to be one of the biggest motivations for me. The problem is starting them!
For the coming week, my review of The Dark Side of Super by Matthew Siadak is scheduled for Monday; then my top two priorities are the cover for The Spike 1.1_Application_Infiltration, and revisions to The Spike Volume 2.
It’ll be interesting to find out what I actually end up doing.
Reading this week: Neuromancer by William Gibson and The Dark Side of Super by Matthew Siadak and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Watching this week: Peaky Blinders season 4 (rewatch) and Colin from Accounts season 3
Playing this week: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
status_report
In addition to the three short stories available to read for free here, there are three more yet to be published that make up The Spike Volume 0. One of the new three is ready to go; the other two require some final editing. I may submit the new three to journals or short story collections, but all will be published by Arrowmaker Books some time before Volume 2 is published.
I’m working on a new cover design for a second edition of The Spike Volume 1.
I’m also working on covers for the two individual parts, 1.1_Application_Infiltration and 1.2_Laying_Down_The_Law, which are going to be published separately for the first time. Both have a similar style and layout.
Draft 3 is under way for The Spike Volume 2!
Volume 2 is my biggest and most complex project to date, containing three separate books from the perspectives of seven characters.
The aim is to finish Volume 2 in 2026.
Early brainstorming has been done for The Spike Volume 3. I know how it must begin; I have an ending that I think will be great; and I have a long list of ideas (that keeps growing) to get from one to the other that needs to be whittled down and put in an order. I’m not intending to do much more work on this until revision is complete on Volume 2.
I have begun brainstorming for Project Lawless Fang, which is unrelated to The Spike series (at least for now).
weekly_inspiration
Every week I share something that’s inspired my creativity.
This week, I’ve been listening to The Smile and mostly their track Thin Thing, below.
I love Jonny Greenwood’s guitar work on this song, and on most things he’s done. He’s obviously very skilled at playing guitar (and other instruments), but it’s his creativity that amazes me. He’s still coming up with sounds and effects I’ve never heard and applying them tastefully.
What’s inspired you this week? Please share in the comments.
See you next week.
Arrowmaker Books 