I’m happy to report that after two days of cool, rainy weather the grass no longer crunches when I go outside. On the down side, it seems to have hatched this season’s Japanese Beetles. When I went outside, one of my trees was covered with them. It happens every year though, so I had a beetle trap ready to put up. I also got my current tax issue sorted out. With any luck it will be the last one, he said with no confidence.

After a nice lunch and an episode of MI-5, I made it to my writing computer around 1:30. I managed 6 pages on the new novel.

I’m trying something a little different with this book. I read somewhere, I don’t recall where, that Nora Roberts did a quick and dirty rough draft where she just told the story without detail to get a feel for it and see if there was enough to make it worth detailing out. Since I wasn’t exactly sure how to begin this book, I decided to try that method. So far it seems to be working okay. Whether I’ll make it all the way to the end or if I’ll just jump back to the beginning and get into the real writing in a few days, time will tell. Even if I don’t follow through to the end, I think it’s good to try different methods once in a while. The worst thing a creative person can do is get stuck in a rut.

One quick update. The Chamber of Eternity is now booked for the editor in the first week of August.

Preorders for The Great Northern War are up to 595. Thanks to everyone that has supported the book. I really appreciate it.

Talk to you tomorrow.