Neverending list of things to do, October 2020 edition

This is a weird time to be alive, y’all.

Like everybody else, I’m doing my best to keep a level head while the world is spinning. Pandemic plus global plus domestic chaos makes it extremely difficult to concentrate on work, but it’s not in my nature to stay still. So I’m reglazing the windows. No, that’s not a euphemism. It’s an old house and the windows need reglazing.

Yeah, we’re barely holding it together over here, why do you ask?

Today, I’m planning my schedule for the first quarter of 2021. Since we don’t know the outcome of the election yet, I don’t know whether November will be spent in a surge of productivity or standing on my roof hugging the chainsaw. So let’s do the usual list of projects.

A Girl and Her Fed (webcomic) — I’ve turned over art duties to the marvelous AlePresser, and couldn’t be happier. I was so burned on art duties. Last year was a fight just to make the update schedule. Now, Ale and I have a month of comics as a buffer, and we laugh as we plan the next strips. It’s a collaboration and I feel it’s breathed new life into a long-running story, and that’s such a relief. We’ve got three years left on this project.

Deep Witches (novels) — The draft for the next book in the series is with my agent. She’ll tell me whether it’s suitable for trad-pub or self-pub. This is planned as a three-book series, with Stoneskin as a stand-alone prequel.

Rachel Peng (novels) — The last Rachel Peng book was Brute Force and it came out almost exactly four years ago. Then politics happened and writing about idealists making positive change within a generally oblivious but stagnant political system made no sense whatsoever. I’m making good progress on the next two books, as Book 5 contains [That One Very Serious Plot Point] and I want to make sure Book 6 comes out as soon as possible to buffer that event. I’d like to release them a week apart. This is planned as a seven-book series.

Hope Blackwell (novels) — Spanish Mission, the most recent Hope Blackwell novel, came out last year. The next and last book in the series is her honeymoon with Pat in a seriously haunted New Orleans. Basically it’s Hope, Pat, and Speedy tripping over ghosts and corpses for their entire vacation.

Joshsmut (novellas) — The last Joshsmut was The Alaska Escape and was released in April. I work on the Joshsmut whenever I need to write about a handsome spy fucking his way from adventure to adventure. This is planned as an eight-novella series.

Unnamed Helen of Troy novel — The rough draft is resting quietly in my hard drive until I’ve lost all emotional attachment and can gleefully butcher it to get to the good stuff.

Disasterhouse (our disaster of a house) — After three years of planning, we’ve finally gotten a new roof. Things no longer stink of mold. The leaks have stopped. It’s pretty awesome but we still twitch and lunge for the buckets every time it starts to rain.

Speedy’s Kids (comic) — There’s a bonus comic for my $5+ Patreon supporters. It’s about four of Speedy’s kids as they make their respective ways in the world. I’ve been slacking on these updates and need to refocus.

Kickstarter (uuuugh) — It’s a personal quest for me to get this finished. I’m not going to touch crowdfunding another project until every backer gets what they paid for, but the behind-the-scenes nonsense with this Kickstarter is remarkable.

Finally, I’ve got an educational middle-grade graphic novel with artist Jeremy Vinar that needs a home. If you’re a publisher looking for a script about a globe-trotting tortoise who starts by meeting Darwin and ends up on the moon, email me!

As always when I make these lists, I feel as though I’ve left something out. Please poke me in the comments if there’s an outstanding project I’ve forgotten to mention.