Upping the Gross factor

I'm too bored to sleep.  It's likely the dumbest thing I've ever said, but it's how I feel right now.  I have this weird sense that I should accomplish one more thing before going to bed, but for the life of me I can't muster up the desire to actually do anything.  So I've spent the last 90 minutes wasting time on the internet, because this is what smart people do with their time.

Although, in my own defense, I did have a very productive day, so unspooling here at the tail end of it isn't too big of a deal.  I completed edits on a novel we'll be releasing at Hall Brothers Entertainment soon, and it felt good to get that project finally done.  We're still behind schedule on pretty much everything, but at least progress is being made.  One project down, lots more that are waiting to be addressed.

I'm almost ready to start work on writing my next novel.  It's going to be a standalone book, just a one-off sci-fi action/adventure thing, which I'm excited about.  Most of our catalog over at HBE is books that belong to a series, so it'll be really nice to have something that's completely unattached and just stands on its own.  But it's actually the NEXT novel that I'm going to write that's on my mind tonight.

This one will probably not be written until later in the year, as after I finish Terraformer (which is a working title) I'll write Black Badge Season Three (which is probably going to be the final book in that series) and then I'll probably go ahead and write the third Scrolls book (which is far from the final book in that series, I want to write like 10 Scrolls books).  But, after all of that, I'll write this other novel that I'm just calling MPW for now.

Why am I excited about this idea?  Well, first of all, it'll be another standalone novel, which is something that I dig.  I love series, don't get me wrong, but having a few one-off books in between is always very nice.  I love being able to read a book, then close that book and know that it's over.  So MPW has that going for it.

More than that though, I think it's going to be a very gross book, and that sort of makes me happy.  Black Badge is violent and cynical and dark, but it's not gross.  I have this desire to do something, I hate to use the word graphic, but I think it fits what I'm trying to say here.  MPW isn't going to be an awful book, but it will have awful things in it.  Gross things, and creatures, and stuff like that.  I really can't share anything else, because I'm a big believer in not saying too much before something is actually being written, and this is a long way from being written.  But I'm doing research, and taking notes, and getting excited about the idea of grossing myself out.

So, what else is going on?  Not much really.  I've been on a huge editing roll lately, and it was much needed and quite nice.  It's nothing but helpful to dive so deep into another person's book.  You learn so much just about storytelling in general.  I read the book first to enjoy it, then I read it a second time to edit/study it.  It's kind of a cool process, and one that I feel always makes me a stronger storyteller when I'm done.  And hopefully, also makes the book I'm editing a little better than it was before.  Of course, this particular writer is a super pro, so the amount of actual editing I do on his work is next to none, but I did move around a few commas and find one spelling mistake, so at least I helped a little, hahaha.

Anyways, I guess that's it.  Summer's here, and I hate that.  Summer is awful on every level imaginable.  But enough about that.

Here are some random thoughts to close out this random blog post.

The new Linkin Park album is pretty good.

I have no plans for 4th of July, but I'm certain my family will pull something together at the last minute.  We have a weird habit of coming up with something to do on that holiday like the morning of.

I'm reading a book called The Black Opera, which is about music being so powerful that it can cause volcanic eruptions and stuff.  So far it's horribly wordy and hard to read, which is a huge bummer because I'm in love with the idea of the book.  I'm hoping it gets better, but reading it right now is a pretty big chore, which never equals out to a high entertainment factor.

On TV I've been enjoying Suits, Falling Skies, Teen Wolf and Franklin and Bash.  I'm a little embarrassed over loving the last two of those shows, but whatever.

I might enter another short story contest.  I finished in second place in the last one I entered, which was awesome.  I've actually been considering putting out a cheap or maybe even free e-book of the short stories I wrote for that contest.  I might do that one day soon!  What a great idea!

Okay, that's all for me.  I think I'm going to go lay down and see if I can experience some of this "sleep" stuff that I hear people talking about all the time.  I hope each and every one of you are doing super fantastic these days!