Unrealistic Expectations

Evening, squiders. Hope all is okay in your neck of the woods. Weird week, right?

I’ve been doing pretty decently since we last talked on Tuesday. I’ve been making progress on my revision planning on RaTs (I’m in the notecard-making phase, where each scene gets its own card. White for now, and color coded later once we know what needs to be changed to what.), I finished the lineart on the June vacation (only six months after the trip this time, but I still need to catch up, yay), I’ve read 5 books for the month of January, I got comments on the query letter, and I’m pondering pitches to be used in Blue Sky pitch events. (As a reminder, this is me: https://bsky.app/profile/kitcampbell.bsky.social )

But I feel like I’m not getting anywhere fast enough.

This is a problem, I think, with a lot of creatives. I want to be further than I am, partly because I want to be doing other parts of the process, and gosh darnit, why is this taking so long?

But also, I’m making steady progress in a part that should not be rushed, and can’t I just appreciate where we are at the moment?

Somewhere in one of Holly Lisle’s writing courses (may she rest in peace), she makes a note about taking breaks. I forget what she says specifically, both because it’s been a while since I went through one of them and because she did periodically update them and change things, but her basic gist was that you can’t sit and work on something for three hours straight. It’s bad for your body, it’s bad for your brain.

Also, annoyingly, I don’t often have three hours straight to do anything anymore.

Take today. I got up and had to take my oldest to school. Then I danced, because my disc in my back is acting up and that helps more than anything else, and then remembered last minute that I had a dentist appointment at 9. The appointment went until 10, and then I had some administrative stuff to do, which I did til 11. At 11 I went to the coffee shop and worked on my revision prep for an hour, after which I went to have lunch with my mother and grandmother (a two-hour-ish affair each time), and then I had a consultation with a contractor for cleaning, and then it was time to get the oldest from school.

Friday is, in theory, an easier day for me, because I don’t work on Fridays and the kids are at school. If I can’t find a 3-hour chunk today, when is it going to happen?

Hold on, I think I’ve gotten sidetracked.

Anyway, my point is that it’s stupid for me to feel like I’m behind when I’m making steady and reasonable progress.

My spouse will say this is a common failing of mine. That I’m always trying to stuff too much into the time I have available to me, and that then I’m disappointed when I only get half or sometimes a third of the things on my list done.

(Also he gets annoyed because he’ll put things on my list that he needs me to do, and I will procrastinate them because invariably they have to do with calling people, but that’s a different problem.)

I worked on my revision prep for an hour. I got through a whole chapter, during which I noted any broken promises to the reader (essentially items, characters, or plot points that seem more important than they are) and did my scene cards (3 scenes in chapter one, with scene sentences, POV, and page numbers).

I think, in my head, I was going to get through the whole book.

Could I have maybe gotten through two chapters? Maybe. I did get a little distracted in the middle by a phone game notification and several texts in a row from various people.

But I made progress. Good progress. At no point did I feel like I was beating my head against the wall or like I was wasting my time.

So why am I upset about that progress?

Maybe it’s because I didn’t make progress Wednesday (worked til 8 pm) or yesterday (back hurt, laid on the ground for a while) and maybe I could be done with the current step if I had.

Maybe it’s because I could have been on the next step or two if I’d spent all my free time over the past week working on the revision, but I’ve been tired and maybe I just needed some rest.

Who knows?

I just wish my brain would get the memo, and keep its expectations more in line with reality at times.

See you next week, squiders!

You Can’t Wait on Others

Evening, squiders. I’m making white bean chicken chili for dinner, so I’ll be in and out while I do steps for that.

(My food processor was a bit too small, so that made a mess.)

We talked last…Friday, I want to say, about iteration. Specifically relating to my submission materials.

Well, now I’ve reached an impasse on my newest query.

I posted it for the TDP people and crickets, except for one person who said it was much better.

I sent it to my critique group, who generally said it was good, except one person thought the first sentence could be punchier and another who pointed out that I’d used the wrong word (I’d used a similar but spelled slightly different word that essentially meant the opposite. Whoops).

And yesterday I posted it on my Discord server, where it, too, has gotten crickets, except for one person who came by again and said it was much better.

Now, one could assume that this is all a good sign. People don’t tend to comment if they can’t easily point out things that are wrong, so perhaps the query is good. At least serviceable.

However, I suspect that would be getting in front of the cart or whatever the saying actually is. A lack of feedback does not mean that feedback is not needed, it just means we’re not getting feedback.

(Also I do suspect things could be a bit punchier. I may attempt that here in a few days no matter what.)

I’ve talked before about how your goals can’t rely on other people because you can’t control what other people do–or decide. Feedback falls into kind of a weird place. Ideally you have some because you can’t always judge your own work that well. But, again, you can’t control if you get feedback, or when, or whether that feedback will be useful.

I love submission so much. We haven’t even started sending things out and it’s already frustrating.

But no reason to sit and stew. (Oh, my chili. Hold on.) Eventually we must move on, trusting in ourselves. We will get feedback, or not, and on we blindly stumble.

(Still need to do my comps. Sigh.)

Meanwhile I’m working on my scifi horror novella revision. It’s…kind of a mess. We’ve talked a bit about that, about how the worldbuilding and the characterization needs some planning and streamlining, but I went through the whole story the other day, and the whole ending is…not really working.

This is a problem, and not one I’m really familiar with. In general, my endings work. Hell, even with whatever draft of Book 1 we’re on, the ending has essentially stayed the same since the very first draft (motivations and action and who’s present has changed, but the ending itself has stayed very consistent).

But there is a logical fallacy in RaTs’s ending, and unfortunately a lot of the rest of the story is built up to lead to that fallacy. Sometime here soon I’m going to have to figure out how to fix it. I might be able to add some more background that makes it make sense, or I may need to move things around. Also, the ending comes a little too easily for the main character, so I need to think about that as well.

Sigh and double sigh.

I don’t think I’m going to be able to have this ready in time to take part in the winter critique marathon in my writing community, alas. Fingers crossed that I can have at least the first chapter done so I can send it out for the next in-person critique meeting.

I’m a little frustrated at how badly I predicted the length of this revision. I think, since this novella was the first thing I ran through the critique marathon that got mostly positive feedback, that I was thinking it was in much better shape than it is.

But on we stumble, and the revision planning will get done, and the submission material will get done, and everything will be fine. Eventually.

But, oh, I wish they were getting done faster.

How are you, squider? What did you have for dinner?

(Also, fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong with the site on the cusp of January into February.)

Writing Just For Writing

I got an email, either yesterday or today, from 750words.com, letting me know that they’d upgraded their website, and as an original member, I was grandfathered in to various things.

For those who don’t know, 750words.com is a website where, each day, you write 750 words. (Probably obviously.) It can be whatever you want–stream of consciousness, scenes, journaling, whatever. And it keeps track of streaks (you unlock badges at different streak amounts) and can keep track of your friends’ streaks.

Anyway, I went and logged in (well, I had to set up a new account on the new site, which they then linked to my old account) and apparently I hadn’t used it since 2011, though I’d used it for quite a while there. I remember writing bits of Book 1 three drafts ago through it, as well as short stories and talking myself through plot and life problems.

If I do it today–hold on, I could write this blog post there. Standby.

Anyway, if I do it today, it’ll allow me to continue my 32 day streak. That I left off on in 2011 sometime.

And, like, 750words was useful to me at the time, but obviously not that useful, since I haven’t touched it in nearly 14 years.

Writing is weird, right? Like, you hear that consistency is key, that you should write a little every day to be a writer, but I’ve found that writing just to write is not necessarily the most useful thing to do.

I absolutely think you should write on a regular basis. That’s partly why I’ve done this blog for so long, because I write once or a couple times a week, no matter where I am in other projects. Keeps the old writing chops from getting rusty and all that jazz.

But writing just to write can be a mixed bag. I know people who write a million words every year. Year after year after year. That’s so many words. I don’t think, in my wildest dreams, I could write a million words in a year. That’s 2740 words every day. Almost 3K every day.

And more power to them, honestly. As I said, I can’t do it. I have a day job and kids and responsibilities, and while I am more than capable of writing 3K or 5K or even 10K in a day, it’s not feasible to do it day after day after day.

And what I’ve found with these people who are so wildly productive is that they’re not doing anything with said writing. I mean, of course, people are allowed to write just for themselves, and if it makes them happy then I’m not going to judge. But I don’t want to do that. I want to share my stories and entertain people and hopefully make their lives just a little better.

And that means sometimes I’m revising, or editing, or marketing, or submitting instead of writing. And I think that’s important too.

The other thing I’ve found when I’m writing just to write and not for a goal is that it feels like a chore after a while. Like, some years ago every month I was writing a short story based off a random combination of prompts I’d saved, which was interesting! 3 prompts, which might or might not line up with each other. It was challenging and a good way to stretch my creativity. But after a couple months I started to procrastinate it, and I think it’s because it didn’t have an end goal.

The main writing just to write I’ve been doing the past few years are my RaTs prompt responses, but even these serve a purpose, as I often use them to write bits that take place before or after novel action, or to explore side or non-viewpoint characters’ thoughts and opinions, or to see what someone else is doing off-screen.

This allows me to understand my stories more fully, which makes them read more believably.

So while I’ve reactivated my 750words, I don’t know how often I’ll use it. Some people swear by morning pages or journaling, but I scratch that itch here and have never been great about consistency when trying to do it in a more traditional manner.

All that being said, one of my writing groups has decided to do bingo cards of prompts and tropes starting in February, and I did sign up for it. I figure I can use them a variety of ways–if I’m working on something long form and need to add something in, for prompts not unlike how RaTs works, maybe even a short story or two if something catches my fancy.

We’ll see. I absolutely reserve the right to drop the whole idea if it’s not working.

But, Kit, I hear you say, isn’t it good to occasionally write for fun?

Sure! But working on novel projects, and revision, and all that jazz–in general I find that fun. I mean, sometimes it is awful and like pulling teeth, but I do typically enjoy it and that is why we continue to carry on.

What do you think, squiders? Worth it to do something to maintain a streak?

Iteration

Hey-ho, squiders! It’s been below freezing here for days, which has been…interesting. And cold. Very cold. My oldest doesn’t believe in the cold, so this has been an interesting experience for him.

I have been working on my submission material. I’ve done two different query versions since we last talked (did one, got feedback, made changes, now am waiting for feedback again) and reworked my synopsis (though not a lot, since I only got feedback from one person and I’m not sure how useful some of it is).

And on we go. We iterate both until they’re ready to go.

(I am still using placeholders on the comps. I do need to work on that.)

Is the query getting better? Hopefully!

Instead of just posting on my Discord server (which is publishing focused and has several agented and traditionally–and indie–published authors) like I did last time, I’m having the former TDP people look at it first. I mean, I posted the first version on Discord in, what? October? November? And then I didn’t do anything for two months cuz I got overwhelmed by the feedback. Having the TDP people look at first is helping, because we have a relationship and I trust them, and I know they’ve got my back and will take another look if I show up with a new version three days later.

Current plan is to see if my TDP people note anything major, then to email it (and the synopsis) to my in-person critique group, and then probably post on the Discord as well. Just not sure if I should do it after the critique group meeting or not. (On one hand, I could gather a lot of feedback and make changes all at once. On the other, I could iterate the comments from the in-person group into a new query for the Discord server.)

I haven’t started my agent list yet, but I did ask people what they used to make their list, and I think I’ll need to get a Publishers Marketplace subscription for a month or two. Bit pricey, but oh well. It is what it is.

In non-submission news, I’m ready to start my revision planning for my scifi horror novella. Got my notebook, and the next step is to read through the manuscript and write down everything that’s not working (and also anywhere that’s working really well). I already know I need some major worldbuilding and character work (like–the main character’s parents are dead, but what happened to them? How old was she? These are key background questions that I apparently never bothered with. Them dying when she’s like six makes for a very different upbringing than if they died when she was 20). After we identify what’s wrong, we can get to fixing it (and streamlining the worldbuilding).

So, you know, actually making progress! Finally!

I hope you’re making progress too, squiders, and I’ll see you soon!

(Oh, in theory kitcampbellbooks.com is back up. If it’s doing something weird, try refreshing it or clearing your cache for it.)

Christmas Ahoy

Hey ho, squiders! We’re less than a week from Christmas, and man, do I feel it.

(I think I’ve bought everything I need to, and we’re done with Secret Santa at work–which went well–but I do need to mail a couple of things and do all my wrapping.)

(Also we watched The Wild Robot tonight which is not Christmas-y, but it tugged all my heartstrings and I still feel a little weep-y about it.)

I’d like to say I’m getting stuff done, but I’m really not. Writing-wise, I mean. Or drawing, or games. I am still getting some reading done at least.

I did finish copying over my beta comments though.

But I think I’m going to take the next week off of blogging. Hopefully get some stuff done, at least focus on Christmas. Come back for the last few days with a plan for 2025 (still a fake scifi year), maybe a vision board, stuff like that.

I’ve made inspiration boards for stories, but never a vision board for, like, my own goals and so forth. I know some people swear by it, and I figure it can’t hurt to give it a try! If nothing else it’s an excuse to troll Pinterest for a while.

I hope you and your family have a happy holiday, whatever you do or don’t celebrate, and let’s ring in 2025 together and do our best to reach our goals!

WriYe and 2024 Recapped

A couple of housekeeping items — there’s a good chance that I’m going to be migrating hosts (or at least servers) sometime in the next month-ish, so if the site is down hopefully it will be back up soon! (Assuming you’re on kitcampbellbooks.com and not the Where Landsquid Fear to Tread blog. If you’re on the blog, please disregard.)

And I finally got myself a Bluesky account, where I have already accumulated two porn bots as followers and no real people.

December’s prompt from WriYe is: Sum up your year for us.

Ah, 2024. Where to begin.

I went into this year with one main goal: finish my revision on Book 1, get my submission materials ready, and send it out to agents.

And then I had follow-on goals, assuming that got done, and some side goals:

  • RaTs (once per quarter)
  • Short Story Challenge month (spring?)
  • SkillShare classes (repost old class, new class late summer)
  • Publish Deep and Blue (scifi)
  • New novella project (November probably)

And then my usual reading goal of 50 books (currently at 46, not terribly worried, in the middle of 3 at the moment), a hope to get through my backlog of Steam games, and do some art (I think I picked 4 pictures a month, which, uh).

I finished the Book 1 revision in…August? September? Oh, July. But I continued to make changes based on the critique marathon and my in-person critique group past then.

And then I’ve procrastinated the submission material for four months. Very proud of myself. (Sarcasm, obviously.) No, actually, I’m super frustrated at myself, because the revision took a year and a half, and it’s so dumb to be failing on the last step here.

As for the side goals:

  • RaTs (once per quarter) – Done! I did keep up with this, and it’s helpful to do scenes from side characters and other POVs, and I think my revision is stronger because of it. (For those who don’t know, RaTs is a writing prompt system.)
  • Short Story Challenge month (spring?) – I started exactly one short story in, uh, August maybe. And I have not finished it. I did outline a bunch of stories, though! For, you know, when I have free time and am like, oh, yes, let me just pound out a dozen short stories.
  • SkillShare classes (repost old class, new class late summer) – I started a class around June, made some progress in October, and there it sits. Oh, I did repost the old class in Jan/Feb.
  • Publish Deep and Blue (scifi) – Done! It’s available through Amazon only at the moment.
  • New novella project (November probably) – Uh, no.

I did send out a couple of longer projects to publications though, and now we wait to see if those go anywhere.

My follow-on project after Book 1 got done is called Rings Among the Stars and is a scifi horror novella. I’m in the “gather information so we can figure out what needs to change” stage on that one.

So writing for the year? Mixed. A couple of publications, a rather depressing entry into the Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off contest (I don’t think the reviewers actually looked at my book before they rejected it), the revision finally done but choking at the finish line, and a lot of needless procrastination. Yay.

I’ve enjoyed my reading for the year, though. I’ve been working through my TBRs, so I’ve liked more of the books I’ve read recently than in years past. Looking forward to doing the year end round up on that.

As for the games, well, I wish I had noted how many games I started with in the Uncategorized section on Steam. I’m currently at 65, which is definitely less, but I know I’ve also bought some new games this year which is a step backwards. I’ve at least played through half the games I kickstarted, which is good.

Steam hasn’t put out their Year in Review for 2024, which would definitely help me figure out how I’m doing here. Oh well.

Drawing has also been a mixed bag. I did finally finish the travel journal for the Scotland trip from 2022, but now I’m behind on this year’s trips (3 days left on the June trip, which was a massive 17 days long, and then I need to do the October and November trips as well), and I spent October doing character drawings (which was fun, at least). I’ve worked through a couple of library books on various subjects, and drew a fantasy map in the last week (which was also for fun, but is a useful skill to have, as the Trilogy will needs maps, like any epic fantasy worth its salt).

Speaking of which, Rings Among the Stars would also benefit from a map…

I always get to the end of the year and bemoan the fact that I was not as productive as I could have been, but it doesn’t seem to do anything to help me procrastinate less in the year to come. And I do think there’s an emotional element to the procrastination. Like, when I was younger, I was SO much more productive. But I wasn’t publishing or anything like that, I was just writing for writing’s sake.

I did take on a gift fic exchange this month to kind of counteract that. Write something just for fun, that only my friend (and maybe my other friends? I don’t quite understand who can read what) is going to read. (And even then, in my brain, I’m like, oh, what if it’s really good and then I can sell it to a magazine? which is not helping the point here.)

But yeah, the Trilogy is a big deal, and I do have a lot of emotions tied up with it since I’ve been working on it for 20 years, and I know that’s why the submission materials are going so poorly. When the submission materials are done, out it goes, to face rejection despite how much I love it and have worked on it. And that’s scary.

But we must overcome.

How did your 2024 go, squiders?

Massive Brainfart

Hey, squiders, how are you doing? I certainly didn’t mean to leave blogging to the last minute this week, but hey, December, amirite?

So I’ve been chugging along on going over the comments on my scifi horror novella from the last time I put it through the critique marathon, and as I did so, I came to a realization, as there were a lot of questions about certain worldbuilding aspects.

What was I thinking, when I made the revision schedule for the novella in my head?

I’ve been operating on the following schedule:

  1. Input comments from critique marathon
  2. Read over story myself
  3. Revise

The worldbuilding comments have reminded me that there are intermediate steps that I always do between gathering feedback and the actual revision.

I do a worldbuilding pass, a characterization pass. I run through each plotline step by step to make sure they make sense and that nothing is forgotten. I re-outline and make changes based on the new outline.

There are sheets and sheets of stuff that I do before I start the revision, and somehow, I just spaced that whole process.

Good job, Kit. A+.

So, now, of course, I’ve got to rearrange my whole schedule and it’s going to take longer than originally planned.

I’m not all the way through the story yet, so I’m not quite sure how much work is needed, so of course that makes it a little harder to readjust the timeline. My hope would be that the whole thing is in relatively good condition (aside from the identified worldbuilding issues) and I can do the revision prep in a few weeks.

But it is the holidays so that’s probably wishful thinking.

In other writing news, I, uh, opened the notes on my submission material? I’d like to sit down and go over it but I haven’t found time. And arguably it’s more important than the novella revision but it also requires more resiliency, so, uh.

Also working on a gift fic for one of my writing groups. 5K is the max, and I thought it might be nice to write something just for fun. And it is! But perhaps a bit irresponsible as well.

Oh well. It is what it is.

How’s your December going? Getting what you want to done? Waiting for the new year?

Not Dead

Hey ho, squiders, I’m not dead!

I started a post to you on, oh, the 21st? 22nd? And then it never got done and it was Thanksgiving break and people were throwing up and then I got sick and…

What’s funny is that that post that I started was also about Things Getting Out of Hand. My husband accidentally drilled into my thumb when the drill bit broke, and I had to cover for my boss at work, and so on and so forth.

But anyway. Who cares about any of that? Not me, because I am too tired to. Though I would like to not be sick because I would like to eat again.

(My thumb is mostly fine except the nail is falling apart little by little, but it will regrow, so whatever I guess.)

And now we’re into December, with 2025 looming. (2025 still doesn’t feel like a real year that, like, we’re living in, by the by.)

And mostly I am…unmotivated.

We were out of town for Thanksgiving and so it kind of feels like it didn’t happen, which is making it especially hard to turn on holiday mode. All the grandparents are asking for Christmas present ideas and, like, we just can’t be bothered. It’s a bit…I don’t want to say depressing but, like, a combination of that and overwhelming. Like, Christmas is A Lot at any point but now I am behind schedule and it just feels like unnecessary stress.

That may be the sickness talking.

We did break out the Advent Calendar today and then got to eat four pieces of chocolate in one go, huzzah.

As for monthly goals, once again I am overly optimistic and have set a high bar, completely ignoring that I am generally unproductive in December because of 1) holidays, 2) looming new years, and 3) general ennui.

I’ve got to revise (and hopefully) finalize my submission materials for Book 1. And work on my revision for my scifi horror novella so I can run it through my critique group/the critique marathon. And I signed up to do a story exchange in one of my writing groups, cuz I haven’t written anything random in a hot minute and I thought, “Why not?”

Not a long list of things, but a time consuming one.

And I need to read 5 books to hit 50 for the year. Doable, if I stay on top of it. And then I have some drawing and video game goals as well.

WE SHALL SEE.

How are you, squider? How are you feeling about the end of the year and the looming of the new one?

Moving On

Ah, squiders. I am so tired. Why? No one knows, but it’s just as well that Nano collapsed and I’m not trying to fit in 50000 words.

(Also have had a couple of nights where I’ve woken up in the middle with existential dread. That’s fun.)

I did finally write a draft of the query letter. I spent like two hours pulling my hair out and writing the most convoluted sentences known to man one day, and the next day I sat down and wrote a complete letter in about 15 minutes.

Not perfect, not anywhere close, but it exists now, and it’s always easier to edit something that exists than create things from scratch, or some such.

I also updated the synopsis and finished out my chapter list, which is a tool I’ve been using for critique so people can keep track of what happened in earlier chapters, and I figured if someone wants a longer synopsis, it’ll work for that as well.

I’ve got the query/synopsis up for critique on one of my Discord servers, where we’re having an interesting discussion about some of the metadata wording.

But now that the query is done(ish), I do find myself kind of twiddling my thumbs. The query (and probably the synopsis) will take a few iterations. And then I need to make a list of agents to query. At this point, I’m wondering if I should just wait until January to actually query because I’ve heard it said that things shut down across the holidays, but I will double check that before I make any decisions.

I think…I think it’s time to move on to a new project. I can still spend some time on the submission materials. Rework the query here. Make the agent list there. And then I’m not just sitting around waiting for feedback and going insane.

Next on my list is the revision for Rings Among the Stars, my scifi horror novella from a few years ago. I’d like to get going on this anyway, so I can run it through the winter critique marathon (and have something to give my in-person critique group come December). Part of me is like, oh no, not another revision, I spent the last year and a half on a revision, but this one won’t be as intense for any number of reasons, including but not limited to:

  • It’s 30K and not 120K
  • I wrote it recently when I knew what I was doing and am not trying to fix pacing and other issues introduced twenty years ago when I wrote the first draft
  • SPACE ZOMBIES
  • Single viewpoint
  • Horror is great for traumatic times

Step 1 will be looking at the feedback I got last time it went through the critique marathon and putting that onto the paper copy I printed out God knows how long ago. Then my own readthrough and notes, which will help me establish what if any major revisions are necessary, and put together a general editorial plan.

So that’s the plan for the next few weeks. Around making agent list and reworking the query.

Happy Tuesday, squiders.

WriYe and Bucket Lists

Happy Wednesday, squiders! I continue to procrastinate writing my query letter so here we are. (Hopefully today, though. Fingers crossed. Of course, I could be doing that instead of this BUT ANYWAY)

(I did submit a novella to a publication, though, which is new for me, so fingers crossed on that.)

Here’s November’s WriYe prompt, by the way: What’s on your writing bucket list? Which one is the most achievable?

Hm. I did do a series of posts, oh, two years ago I want to say? About stories I’d like to write in the future. Hold on.

Dual Timelines
Interlocking Lives
Nakama
Fantasy that’s really Scifi

(It was three years ago.)

I kind of feel like this prompt is more about like, the process of writing instead of story ideas. Like, more of a bucket list like: finish a draft, publish a story, etc, etc, et al. BUT ANYWAY.

I don’t know that I really have a bucket list. Obviously I have goals but “bucket list” implies more…finality? I don’t know.

Or maybe more generality? Like, a bucket list item could be “have a short story published” but a goal is “publish this short story in particular.”

I hope I’m making sense.

From a bucket list standpoint, I’ve done a lot of general things. I’ve sold short stories, published novels, taught classes, and been on panels at conventions. I’ve checked a lot of the “I’m an author” boxes. And the ones I haven’t, things like “become a bestseller” or “have a movie optioned” depend on other people. I’ve talked before about how frustrating it can be to have goals that rely on other people, and how you lose control because you can’t control what other people do. So while I would like those things, certainly, I still don’t think I would put them on any sort of bucket list for those reasons.

If we go back to those posts from above, I would say the Fantasy that’s really Scifi is the most attainable (and, as I mention in that post, City of Hope and Ruin fulfills it in some ways). I’d like to work on a science fiction series soon, which could lead into the Nakama one. The interlocking lives and dual timelines are still probably outside my reach, but I bet I could do them if I really tried.

But we’ve got to finish what we’re working on first. The freaking submission materials for Book 1. And then the revision on my scifi horror (and I need to get on that too so I can get it to my critique group in December and probably run it through the critique marathon in January). And then maybe something new?

We’ll have to see where we are.

What’s on your bucket list, squiders?

Books by Kit Campbell

City of Hope and Ruin cover
Shards cover
Hidden Worlds cover