Check is in the Mail

Got my first royalty statement from Kensington and was pleasantly surprised. Sprung for Chinese food for the family. Pretty cool.

Contracts on the Way

Got word from my agent that the contracts for the next two books with Kensington are in the mail. Have to say I'm pretty excited. Working on the second book of the contract now and making good progress. The story is gaining momentum and I'm liking it so far.

Finding the Time

As writers, we all lament not having enough time to write. Often people ask when I find the time to write. I would guess most writers are holding down a full time job in addition to writing. That cuts into writing time, as does family, chores, etc. But you don't have to let that stop you. One of the best ways to get writing done is the good old spiral notebook. I wrote the first drafts of two novels in notebooks, mostly on breaks at work. The notebook holds the advantage of being portable, and you don't need a power source or have to wait for the thing to boot up. Say you get two breaks and an hour lunch at work. I would bet instead of catching up on office gossip at the lunch table, you could write three or four rough draft pages. You could also take the notebook to doctor's appointments (you didn't really want to read that copy of Newsweek from 1993, did you?), kids' sports practices, or when you get the oil changed in your vehicle. You get the point. Fifteen minutes here and there doesn't seem like much, but the pages add up. And you've got yourself a first draft when you're done. You can either type it up when the draft is done, or type in the handwritten stuff in the evening. Either way, you're making progress.