Awesome new idea for a game came to me today. I’ve been keeping Survival: Worms in the back of my head for a bit. Needs work. This one? Survival: Chili. A faster game than Survival: Heaps. Still some sort of resource management, but it’s both cooperative and competitive at the same time. Can’t wait to get started on it.
Survival:Heaps expansion packs will be out by March. Still looking at packaging for them.
I’ve also gotten back to Plots and Drops, my role playing game. Editing can be awful, especially since I keep coming up with new ideas. I have to put them down on a side note for a new adventure. That should be coming out by June.
Jana’s got some cool ideas for the cover of Ash. Sorry it’s a bit late coming out. After Ash, I’ll be putting together the final edits for LampLight and Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing. Super excited to get both my other series and the book that started it all out.
One of the best things Jana’s done for me so far is drawing a picture of Moe. (Haven Point series.) I swear, it could be a photograph. It’s hanging on my wall, with the two book covers she’s done so far for Novo: Ridge Lake, behind my desk. All I have to do is turn around and see this rottweiler that I dreamed up years ago, almost come to life. I’ve decided to incorporate it into LampLight as a photo that Jaimie keeps in her wallet.
Why am I putting all this down?
After the past couple of months, I need something to look forward to. With all the hard work I’ve put into these, watching my series come to life is life to me. Outside of my pets.
I will probably mention this, oh, about a thousand times in these posts… The memory of when I hit “publish” on my first novel. I was shaking. Angry about being alone when I did it. I was frustrated with the people in my life not being around for it, having to fit what was so important to me into someone else’s schedule when I’ve been made to wait for most of my life. While that’s a negative, I want you to understand where I was, in my head. The moment I finally had everything down the right way… yes, I was shaking. Nervous. While my anxiety/anticipation is sometimes high, it’s rarely THAT high. This crowning spot in time where I had DONE IT. All the nay-saying was futile. All the work was done. All the doubt crashed on my head and went away. And then… someone did something absolutely wonderful for me.
I don’t cry very often. I celebrate even less. But that night… it’s as clear as a bell in my head. I was exhausted but I didn’t stop grinning for a week.
I can tell you exactly when Beth started to become real. (It wasn’t the first book I had planned on publishing.) It was when Jana handed over the finished cover art. Before I digitized the graphic and added in the title and all that other stuff. It was about two weeks before I published. I remember standing at her counter and I couldn’t contain the joy. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was holding on to a live wire. In a good way. Not fried out, like I get from dealing with the crap life shoots out. Good. Happy. I drove home, in the winter, much like it is now, 13 months ago, and I can tell you I sang at the top of my lungs all the way, for an hour and a half.
Those two moments, seeing the finished cover and hitting the publish button, opened me up inside. My past, all of it, was completely dimmed by this excited, jittering happiness and led me to open up other parts of myself. So much that I was able to let someone in and find parts of me that I thought were gone forever.
I got the same thing when I showed my sister the completed prototype for Survival:Heaps.
I hope I never lose those feelings.
Seeing the cover for Ash will be huge for me. It was the easiest book, so far, for me to write. Jana’s been very patient with me and my ideas and very tolerant of the changes. But she came up with such a cool concept when mine didn’t work out so well. I can’t wait to see it. Especially since I wrote the original dedication for this one three years ago to someone I can’t thank enough for the kindness they showed me. I added to it, this year, for another, because I honestly don’t know where I would be without those two people entering my life. I honestly don’t.
So while I’m saying this so close to the new year, it isn’t a resolution. It’s my joy coming out, knowing that, very shortly, I will have another one of those moments. A slew of them, for the past five years of hard work and not giving up.
Bless you all. Have an awesome day.