Hello, everyone! It’s been a little while since I’ve posted an update, and I hope you are doing well. Most of the time since the last update went toward holiday stuff and then getting back into something of a routine. In any case, I will try to keep this from being too long.
So, all things considered, this past month has been involved a lot of my standard activities. Writing and reading have both gone well. I haven’t made much art, but I have tried to focus on some of the areas I’ve been wanting to improve for a while (namely dragon wings and people). I’m also looking forward to my second February Album Writing Month (FAWM), which is starting on 1 Feb.
I am making progress on the first draft of Book 11. It is currently at about 85k, which seems to be about where it should be at this point in the book. Given that this book is the second-to-last book in the current series, I was definitely expecting it to need a bit more space to bring everything together and to set things up for the end of the series. I was planning to finish it this month, but at the moment, I’m setting a tentative goal for the end of February. That should also give me time to plot (and start) Book 12 prior to the start of Camp NaNoWriMo in April. We’ll see how things go, though.
With regard to reading, one of the primary things I’ve read this month was Brandon Sanderson’s Tress of the Emerald Sea. It was the first of the four secret novels he announced through Kickstarter last year, and I really enjoyed it. It was rather hilarious, and I definitely recommend it if you are looking for a funny read. (I don’t want to say to much about it here, but if anyone would like to talk about it, feel free to drop me a line.) It is part of Sanderson’s Cosmere (the universe that connects several of his series), and due to certain elements of the story, there are a lot of references to “big picture” things. However, the story itself is standalone. I am looking forward to the other three books being released this year. Other than that, I’ve made a bit of progress with two manga series (specifically Bleach and Dr. STONE). I still have a ways to go for Bleach, about 30 volumes, but I am close to the end of Dr. STONE, and I am really curious to see how it goes.
My art has been a bit light this month. I did participate in a community draw put on by David Petersen (creator of the Mouse Guard series) called “Discovering Dragons.” Essentially, he provides a couple prompts (for January it was “Ember” and “Ferret”), and anyone who wants to participate can draw a dragon in whatever way the prompts inspire them. He does a livestream of his contribution on Twitch on the first Friday of every month, 4pm to 8pm Eastern time. That was really fun, and I’m looking forward to the next one, which is the end of this week. Incidentally, I mentioned earlier that I’ve been looking into how to draw dragon wings… in case y’all are curious, yes, this is why.
This upcoming week, I do have quite a few things going on. I intend to make more progress with Book 11. So far, that seems promising. I also wish to read more of Diane Duane’s The Empty Chair, which I started a while back. I do have a few other things I would like to read, but I haven’t yet decided which mood I’m in. Other than that, FAWM is starting on Wednesday, and the next session of “Discovering Dragons” is planned for Friday. I’m hoping this means that this week will be rather creative (at the very least), and rather productive (if things go how I expect them to).
Also, Camp NaNoWriMo is coming up in April. Feel free to add me as a writing buddy on the NaNoWriMo website. My name on the site is fantasy_writer42, and you can find my profile here.
That seems to be everything for this update! Thanks for reading!
~ Theresa
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