A. B. KEUSER

It’s Friday, time to look at what we’ve done for the last week. March felt like three years. Here we are, almost out of april, and I feel like it’s gone by in a literal blink. I cannot tell you how often the words “time is stupid” tumble out of my mouth.  Words written (week/YTD): 7,354 / 182,279 229 words of admin + 1 projects.  Let this week’s numbers be further proof that fewer projects equals fewer words. I’ve got a few deadlines coming up, which means I’ve got to put all of my focus and energy into a few very specific things. I’m not perturbed by this week’s low count, though, because of the number of pages I got edited. I blew past 2015’s April w/c yesterday, which is always a good feeling. But my “Productivity = Worth” brain continues to tell me I’m failing if I don’t write more than I’ve ever written before. I can rationalize all I like, but my brain won’t accept defeat. 121 pages edited Pro Tip: If you’re going to work on a book without having locked down which tense you’re go

I’ve seen a lot of posts about how to make maps of your fantasy worlds. And I thought I'd share mine with you. Because this is a long-ish process, I'm breaking it up into four easy to follow parts over the next weeks. Having a map of your own world can be useful when plotting quests, or just figuring out how things relate to each other spatially. The maps I've created are almost exclusively for my fantasy worlds (In the Clockwork Fairy Tales as well as unpublished works). Didn’t see part 1? Check it out here. Prep your proportions If your map is crazy big (like mine was) you may need to deal with that. In my case, I took a picture of the whole map and then I popped it on my computer, dropped it into a word document (because I needed to be sure it worked on a 11x17 sheet of paper) added a few minor details, and then printed the thing out on a single sheet! You may be able to skip this step if your original version fits on a normal sheet of paper. Break out your black mar

It’s Friday, time to look at what we’ve done for the last week. A lot of non-writing activity this week. Means a low word count, and a lot of progress that isn’t visible on “paper”. Words written (week/YTD): 8,046 / 174,925 325 words of admin + 3 projects. It never fails: The fewer projects I work on in a week, the lower my w/c is. My brain needs constant flitting. It is a humming bird, and my books are only some of the flowers. I’m very close to passing the 2015 April w/c, and I’m trying DESPERATELY to not let things on the low end of the priority spectrum distract me from what needs to get done first. But I’m very distractible right now. 20 pages edited Content edits are great. They help me deal with finding where I forgot to write something because I skip around a lot and also with those scenes that I just can't get flowing without making a real pen bleed on the pages. Another fifty to deal with over the weekend, so… hopefully that’s the number (or higher) we seen next week. Wh

It’s Friday, time to look at what we’ve done for the last week. I try to drop an interesting fact on my coworker every day and today’s was something I semi-suddenly remembered from Rainbow Brite’s San Diego Zoo Adventure. What the heck was that even? Words written (week/YTD): 10,685 / 166,879 145 words of admin + 4 projects. No time off this week, so the count was pretty normal compared to other weeks. It was interesting to total up the projects and find that they were all pretty close, averaging 2,635 a piece. I need to get myself back in gear and get stuff done. My monthly average isn’t where it needs to be and I’m getting frustrated with my numbers. But I only have myself to blame. Time to turn back to the to-do lists that start out as a massively complicated plan before I distill them down to something that will actually work. 23 pages edited These were final passes and a few pages of content edits. Steadily creeping forward…. What I’m reading The everchanging CDC guidelines, a Rus

It’s Friday, time to look at what we’ve done for the last week. No April Fools, just April fun. Kinda. I put Slow Burn Dark out over the weekend, and have once again proven to myself that I’m not great at marketing, but… we’re working on that. Words written (week/YTD): 16,590 / 146,171 652 words of admin + 4 projects. I had some time off, so I did both more, and less writing. More during traditional “work hours” and less in the normal time slot reserved for it. In March, I passed 2014, 15, & 18’s month counts putting the month total pretty squarely in the middle of the pack. 0 pages edited Oops. What I’m reading CDC guidelines and revisiting some old favorites.

We’re officially in the last for-sure nice month here in Phoenix, as far as temperature goes. Next month might be great, but it also might be rubbish. Meteorology is a pseudoscience, and there’s really no telling what May will give us. This year, that almost doesn’t matter. Normally, I’d be trying to get myself ready for the air-conditioning-all-the-time months to come, by spending as much time outside as possible. WiFi extenders mean I can take the laptop into the garden and write to the sound of mesquite leaves falling on the sun shades, which is more like rain than you’d expect. But going “out” is obviously a thing of the past. At least the dogs are definitely a fan of this time of year no matter what. While the coming summer months are good for writing, they are brutal, but I imagine they will make a prolonged “stay at home order” or “shelter in place” a teensy bit easier for those of us who live in this particular oven. On a much happier note: I have a new book out! Better yet, It