Deadline

Folks, as you know from reading my blog or posts I've made to Facebook and Twitter, I've been struggling the last couple of months to get work done on From the Shadows, let alone get it finished. Yesterday while at work, the story crossed my mind as it often does and I had the thought of trying to write the remaining eleven chapters and prologue in time to release it on the once-every-century date of 10/11/12.

Obviously that was an insanely unrealistic thought, as there's simply no way I could have gotten the rest of the book written and then beta'd by at least two people in only thirty hours. However, it did inspire me to get back to work, and I did get over 3,500 words written last night. I'm about to get going on it again, and as I was preparing myself to get started (slowly but surely...darn distracting Facebook!), I realized I could set myself a more realistic goal: October 22nd.

See, I mentioned my crazy thought of getting the book written in one day on my FB author page, and someone commented that it sounded like a NaNoWriMo project. I replied that I would, in fact, like to get this book done by the end of October so that I can start fresh with a new book for NaNoWriMo in November. Then, a few moments ago, there I am making final checks of my messages so I can get to work on writing when it occurred to me that I have a five-day off stretch coming up from October 18th to the 22nd; I didn't request that time, it's just how the schedule worked out. Anyhoo, the thought I had was to turn that unexpected mini-vacation into a writing blitz. Setting a goal to get the book done during those five days gives me time to have the book beta read by at least two people if I want to release it on the same day as Darkest Desires, the anthology in which my short story The Beauty in the Black Room appears. I think having two of my stories release on the same day (October 31st) would be pretty darn kuul.

So that's it. My self-imposed deadline for finishing From the Shadows is 11:59 pm, October 22, 2012. Interestingly enough, it is the same day the Diary is hosting Kristine Cayne as part of the Romantic Maidens Book Tour for Romance in the Rain!