December 30th, 2024 Update. The End is Nigh!
Which end am I talking about? The end of the year, of course! Wait, did you think I'm nearly done with Reborn Elite's first draft? Well I am! Here is the exact checklist.
Finish Chapter 39: Already a thousand words into this.
Write the epilogue.
Do a light edit to Chapters 30-32: I discovered a mistake and need to make adjustments.
Do the Quality Control initial edit of all of the above.
Get copies to my Beta Readers and take a week off.
Bug my artist about the cover art when the holidays are over.
Start on the main editing process.
So yeah, I will be done with the first draft. 2024 has been a crazy year, and while Elite Born hasn't done as well as I had hoped it might, its done far better than I might have feared. Within only four months, its become profitable. It has paid for every single thing I could even tangentially connect to the book as an expense, even things I should consider as lifetime expenses. While the world is looking grim in some ways and the next few years might be crazy. Here's hoping they work themselves out and we all come through happier and healthier. I'm looking at getting two books published in 2025, maybe three. We'll see how it goes. I definitely plan on getting my side project finished in time for Halloween and then I have Book 3 of Ashes to write. So, here's to a wonderful 2025.
Project Statuses
Main Project - Reborn Elite - 130,600 Words: So this is not going to be as long as I thought it would be. It should be about 134k-135k by the time I finish, and that's before the edit. Elite Born was about 130k when I finished the first draft. It shrunk during editing, and I won't be surprised if Reborn Elite does as well. But most of that was during the first initial Quality Control edit, which is already done, so it might not shrink by that much.
Side Project 1 - Rise of the Bloodmoon Witch - 67,300 Words: Standard progress this week. At this point, I'm not exactly sure where I'm going next in the story, but I also didn't even write a list of goals for this one, much less an outline. This one has been completely off the cuff, so we'll see where we go. This might suffer this week, especially as I'm driven to finish Reborn Elite, so we'll see.
Side Project 2 - A Penny for a Wish—17,500 Words: There is nothing here, but with Reborn Elite so close to being done, it is no surprise that I haven't touched it. I might pick this up as I edit Reborn, but we'll see.