Slow and Steady Wins the Race

I've had to hit the ground running after an amazing and intense summer with the Native American and Pacific Islander Research Experience (NAPIRE) Program in Costa Rica.

With classes starting on Wednesday at Avila, I am working hard to organize syllabi and lectures.  I have one brand new course plus two courses with new edition textbooks. So there's a lot of work ahead in the coming months, but also a lot of excitement.

The new general biology lab at Avila University.

As if preparing for class weren't enough, we have brand new installations in O'Reilly Hall. Offices and labs were gutted last summer and completely remodeled.  I have a beautiful office complete with shiny new furniture and REAL bookshelves. I also, for the first time since joining the faculty at Avila, have my own designated lab for personal and student research.  Setting up house in the new digs this week has been a real joy, but also a real distraction. At this point I'm not sure just what I will have ready for my students by the time classes start on Wednesday (save for my bright and happy smile), but I've been in this business long enough to know that somehow it will all get done.

Speaking of that "somehow", while the NAPIRE experience was unforgettable, and while I am so very glad I participated in the program as co-coordinator this year, it is true that the decision to work at Las Cruces meant some sacrifices in other parts of my life.

My niece with Grandpa, Dad, and cousin Gary at the
King Tut exhibit, Union Station, Kansas City, Missoui.

One of those sacrifices was time with my family, most especially my husband, but I also missed a valuable opportunity to see my brother when he came through Kansas City with my nieces, ages 3 and 6, this summer. He and his family live in Hong Kong, so every moment they spend with us in the States is precious, especially with the girls growing up so fast.

The other sacrifice was my writing. Summer has traditionally been a time to get a significant chunk done on the WIP (work in progress), but with the level of dedication required to keep NAPIRE running, it just wasn't possible to move forward that much on Eolyn's final adventure in Daughter of Aithne. 

That being said, I can't really complain. While I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, I did complete the revision of the first 70,000 words of the manuscript, which began last January. During the course of eight months, I threw out major chunks of material, rewrote entire scenes and chapters, and tightened up everything that I decided to keep. And while the word count ticker didn't moved that much, I am approaching the 80K mark on this project. I guess that's nothing to sneeze at.

All things considered, this is where I wanted
to be this summer. Everything else would
just have to wait.

I also at last finished my short story submission for the Faelon Anthology, a special project of DGS Games and the Dead Horse Society. Will they accept it? I don't know, but at least I managed to write a short story, and one that I am proud of.

Those of you who follow my blog may be aware that short stories are my nemesis. I have a couple out there floating around, but for the most part it's hard for me to confine my story telling to something inside 5000 or 10,000 words.  The Faelon short, for the moment entitled "Lamya of the Sea" clocks in at around 6500 words. I started it last November and finished about two weeks ago, which puts my average on this one at 650 words a month.

Sometimes I despair at how little writing I can get done with all my other commitments, but if the Faelon project has taught me anything, it is that the old saying still holds true:

Slow and steady wins the race. 

With the fall semester just starting, you can look forward to regular posts on this blog again. Many thanks to everyone who followed me during the summer as I blog hopped during Eolyn's Amazing Audio Book Tour.  High Maga is scheduled for release this fall, so be looking for another blog tour and giveaway not too far down the road.

My other family: NAPIRE 2014

Happy Halloween!

The Gaelic festival of Samhain was the inspiration for Samhaen in Eolyn's world. 

Though Samhaen is somewhat different in the details from the corresponding holiday in the real world, the basic idea remains constant.  As a girl, Eolyn celebrated Samhaen with singular devotion, as it was one of the few nights of the year when her dead family could reach across the void to visit her. She never failed to leave out food for them, including her brother's favorite snack, honey-sweetened bread.

Halloween snuck up on me this year.  I haven't done that much at all in terms of decorating, but I have the candy ready and am looking forward to seeing all the neighborhood kids in costume tonight.  I'm also very happy for the children in Kansas City that the big rain storm forecast for this week happened yesterday, instead of today.

I've been invited to participate in an exciting project with DGS Games.  They are sponsoring an anthology based on the richly imagined world of Faelon.  The project is being undertaken in coordination with the Dead Horse Society, the speculative fiction writers group where I got my start as an author.  They are an amazingly talented group of writers, and this is going to be a great anthology.

As honored as I was by the invitation, I was a little hesitant to accept.  I've been keeping a good pace on Daughter of Aithne, and I'm reluctant to pick up obligations that will cut into writing time meant for finishing the novel. More importantly, short stories are not my gift.  I have two stories out there that I am very proud of ('Turning Point' and 'Creatures of Light'), the hard-won products of countless failed attempts at writing a story inside of 5,000 words.  But practice makes perfect, and in the end I decided I'll never get good at writing short stories if I keep shying away from doing them.  Also, the opportunity to work with such a fine group of writers was really too much to resist. 

After mulling over different ideas for about a month, this week I started on writing my story for the anthology. The short will be set in the Kaliphate of Koronna, a prosperous region of cosmopolitan cities, with a rich culture that is more-or-less balanced in terms of gender relations.  The protagonist of the story is an elderly woman, known only as 'Nana'.  This is a first for me, to have a protagonist well into her later years, and it makes for some very exciting possibilities.  Nana is a refugee, having fled to Koronna at a very young age for reasons she has never shared with her family, though they will be gradually revealed as the story progresses.  We will also meet Nana's intriguing grand daughter, Mirella, and learn about her mysterious heritage and unique destiny. 

It's all in the very early stages now, but if things pan out as I hope they will, this is going to be an awesome story. DGS' Faelon anthology is scheduled to be released in the latter half of 2014. 

In other news, we are just days away from launching the new web site for Hadley Rille Books. And, sometime in the month of November I will, at last, do a full cover reveal for High Maga.  The release date is closer than it seems; even though we will not see the book in print until April 4, 2014, the e-galleys are well underway and must be sent out for editorial review in the coming days. 

Editorial reviews -- aaagh!  The very thought stresses me out.  Please wish me luck, keep a candle lit, say a few prayers or cast a few positive spells, whatever it is you do to send positive energy, now is the time to do it, so that High Maga will be well-received by the critics who will soon find her on their desk.

That's all I have for this week.  Happy Halloween, and enjoy the weekend to come!