Trying to beat the heatwave we had last week by staying inside when I can, except for watering our new sod three times a day. This week has been better, and, bonus, rainier!
Unpopular opinion: I dislike summer. 😂 Each year after I graduated from high school and no longer had summer breaks, I’ve liked summer a little less (I usually had to take summer classes during college). I don’t like the beach or many other traditional summer activities, I burn easily in the sun, and it’s hot. And that heat, in all the humid places I lived, is inescapable aside from staying inside in the air conditioning—or, if you’re lucky, in a pool. At least we’re fortunate enough in the US that air conditioning is standard. I feel for the people in Europe right now.
As someone with an optimizer brain, it’s aggravating how much harder heat is to solve than cold. For instance, ever since I got an electric blanket for my bed, I’ve never had an issue with winter nights. Summer nights are a different story—even with two fans going, I still wake up hot sometimes.
That’s why I’ve decided this year that summer is officially my least-favorite season.
Writing/release update
I’ve had some better health days this past couple weeks. Not as many as I’d like, but some! Which means I’ve got about four more chapters done on book 2 of the new series, and I’m up to 95k words. And I am pretty sure now that I’m over halfway. Pretty sure. 😅
What’s helped a lot lately is that I’ve been able to use more pieces from my old manuscript (circa 2016–2022) for this new version of book 2 than I could for the new version of book 1.
Almost nothing was usable from the old manuscript for book 1 except one single scene, and even that needed a decent amount of modification. However, by the time I’d reached “book 2” in my old manuscript [1], years had passed since I’d begun writing that story. My writing improved that much over those years and I understood enough of the world, characters, and plot by then that much more of what I wrote then is usable now.
Even those parts still need a lot of modification for this new version: deleting, adding, voice tweaks, terminology updates, that kind of thing. But it’s a kind of work that’s a lot easier on my brain right now. It’s editing, basically. Don’t get me wrong, as a former professional editor, I know editing takes a lot of brainpower. But it’s still not the highest tier, which is writing something new—as close to creation ex nihilo as creativity gets for me.
On the days when I couldn’t even do that much (in other words, while I was recovering from Doing All The Things last month), I’ve reread what I wrote, all the way from the beginning of the new version of book 1. Not necessarily a recommended practice for everyone, since, for some people, it can discourage them, or they can get caught up forever tweaking the stuff they’ve already written, or that refreshing can backfire when they’re done writing the zero draft and it comes time to do the full edit, and they need the freshest eyes possible.
But I know myself and my process well enough to know that last week was a good time to do that refreshing. I’d focused like crazy on the new website and the Blood of the Covenants series for so long, a re-immersion in the new trilogy was very beneficial.
Mom asked me whether I deep read or skim when I do that, and I answered “deep read,” but the truth is, it’s somewhere in the middle. I know the content too well to deep read as if it’s new. (It’s like how I can’t reread my favorite books by other authors unless it’s been years, but worse.) I’ll correct a typo or grammatical mistake if I see it, but I don’t look for them. I take mental notes on the general state of what I’ve written and still need to write, but I won’t write anything down or look anything up.
It’s actually a very soothing process—and scientifically proven for me. 😉 My health tracker says I’m more relaxed as I reread what I’ve written. And, like I said, it was all I could do for the first few days of last week as my brain and body recovered, and it got me re-excited to get writing after that.
The full-blown obsessive flow hasn’t happened yet, because my health still hasn’t allowed it, but the creative pipes are opening and ideas and solutions are flowing again, even if it’s at a trickle, and that’s what’s most important.
Thanks for being so patient, everyone, as I write this next series more slowly than I’d hoped.
Footnote
[1] Just like when I wrote the Blood of the Covenants, I had no separation in the old manuscript between books 1 and 2, and to some extent, book 3—they just seamlessly blended into each other, and only later did I have to decide where to make the split. (Though I had a better idea of where the start and end of book 3 would land, even back then.)
Audio sale on books 4–6
There’s a Chirp Freebie Friday deal going on the 4–6 audiobooks of the Blood of the Covenants series!
It’s not the bundle version, though—it’s the individual books, so you buy them separately. Or you can even pick and choose. That’s just how their Freebie Friday deals work. Book 4 is the freebie, books 5 and 6 are 99 cents. If you prefer the bundle, hang tight—another Chirp bundle deal will come around again at some point (though it’ll be at least a few months).
From today to Monday (10–13 July 2026)
Dragon’s Crown, $0.00
Dragon’s Hope, $0.99
Dragon’s Child, $0.99
