Soldier of Dorsa Release Date and Other News

On Valentine’s Day, I finished my final edits on Soldier of Dorsa. Hooray!!! The book is currently in the hands of a few lucky (randomly chosen) beta readers, and after they’ve had a chance to let me know about any typos, grammatical errors, or inconsistencies they’ve found, I will release the book on Thursday, February 27th.

(By the way, if you would like to be a beta reader in the future, you should join my Reader’s Club if you haven’t already. I always give about 20-30 people a chance to read my new releases for free, and in exchange they help me to catch errors.)

I met my unrealistic goal!

I didn’t meet my “super unrealistic goal” of February 10th, but I was able to meet my slightly less unrealistic goal of finishing by mid-month. I lucked out that my guiding teacher got sick again (bless her heart) and took the day off on Wednesday. For (complicated, technical, long) reasons I won’t get into here, I didn’t cover for her, so I also had the day off on Wednesday and spent the whole day editing in my pajamas. On Friday, once my grad school class was over, I decided I would not move from my chair until I was done. Three hours later, I finished.

It confirms my belief that it’s important to set the bar high and really push to make that bar, rather than listening to people who tell you “Don’t be so hard on yourself! You deserve a break!”

My planner continues to help me a lot

On the note of being productive, I talked about getting a new productivity planner and how much I’ve enjoyed it. I must say that it makes a big difference to my level of focus to write down my goals each and every day and review my day before I go to bed. I’ve been consistent in my use of it for about a month, and I’ve noticed a major reduction in my overall level of procrastination.

Onward! edTPA comes next

I can’t even tell you what a relief it was to finish Soldier of Dorsa on Friday. I don’t think I even realized how stressed I was about not having finished it until I wrote the words “End of Book 2.”

You know the saying, “It felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders”? I think we developed that phrase for a very good reason. When I finished, I felt physically lighter than I had in weeks. It made me reflect on the ways in which our bodies carry our stress without us even realizing it. (On that note: If you’re interested, you should check out the psychotherapist Nicole Sachs, who talks about relieving chronic illness by facing and letting go of our repressed emotions.)

Now that I’m finished with all but the tiny corrections in Soldier, it’s time for me to go full-steam-ahead on edTPA. I’m redirecting all the energy I put into my book to finish up my teaching credential portfolio.

I graduate from my degree program in three months!

Can you believe it?? I can’t! I knew signing up to complete my master’s in 12 months instead of 24 was going to be intense, but I figure anything is doable for a year, and given that I’m already 41, I didn’t want to waste any more time than I had to in starting my second career.

“So… when will you start Book 3?”

Dude. Really??! You’re asking me that??!

(Okay, technically you didn’t ask. I did.)

I’m not going to start tackling book three until at least after the edTPA is finished (which should hopefully be in about one month). Once I get back to the world of the Empire, my first task will be to finish the maps. I want a nice map of the Empire and of the city of Port Lorsin. While I work on that artistic endeavor, I will let my mind float in the ectoplasm of unconscious creativity, hoping to write Book 3 in my head.

After that, I will spend some time developing a thorough outline for the book. That should take about a week or two. Then and only then, I will begin to write. My plan is to start about the time that I graduate, so May-ish. How much progress I make and when I finish will totally depend on my job situation.

So unless you’re a tinker’s wife who tells fortunes (you’ll understand when you read Soldier, I can’t yet guess or even goal-set for Book 3.

Until next time!