The coming new year always reminds me just a little about how short a human life span really is. We all struggle to accomplish what we might: write a book, a script, save a life, bring a life into this world. There is so much that we could accomplish if we just had a bit more time. As it is I always try to accomplish all that I can. I was talking to Samantha early today about learning a new language. Latin, or German maybe, something fun. We’re tossing around a few ideas.

The writing has progressed well this year. I edited four drafts of The Forest Awakens, finished 20% of my new book, and with the new year I’ll have released over 30,000 words in four complete podcast stories (a total I plan to significantly beat in 2010). I even attended my first writing conference. So writing has been going well, it’s still a lot of fun. I could do more, of course I could, but I’m happy with what I’ve done.

It was a sad year with the animals. We lost two of them, both cats. Apricot was an old mother, she had a good life of 16 years. But Mop was too young, she was Apricot’s daughter. She was the runt of the litter and was born very weak. I always feared something like it happening. They will both always live in our hearts.

Whether it is a good memory or bad, I always find myself back at the thought that we are all just students of this world. Students without enough time to learn everything. We should all be trying to learn everything we can. I hope that you had a good year, and wish you an even better on in 2010! Try to learn something new that interests you.

This week is officially the last week of holiday break. Tuesday Night Stories will be back in action next Tuesday night. There will even be a bonus treat because of the wait. Be sure to check back!

Today we finished recording the final part of Mr. Snaggle’s Oddities. That marks the end of three stories that I’ve written for Tuesday Night Storytime. At 9 parts, this story was the longest so far with 11,000 words. I think it’s one of my best works yet. As someone who usually follows the more traditional medieval fantasy, this was both a challenge and a blessing. It was a blast to work on something in a modern setting.

Because I do all my podcast writing in yWriter, I thought I’d share the statistics that it has kept track of. Since we began we’ve done 3 stories over 23 parts. All together that is almost 24,000 words, written and edited, in the last few months. I’m feeling pretty good about that!

This means it’s time to come up with a new story idea! I thought I would open the floor to my readers and internet buddies. This is a fantasy podcast, so keep that in mind. Your suggestion can be anything related to the genre. I thought it might be a fun thing to do whenever we finish a story.

And don’t forget to check back Tuesday for the final Snaggle episode!

I haven’t given you guys a writing update in awhile. I’m still plugging away at the assassin novel. The percentage bar is up to 15%. It has been going a bit slower than my initial estimation. Mostly because after some agent rejections my wife and I began a 5th draft of my YA novel. Hey, it never hurts to do more work. It’s almost finished (again) and I’ll soon be sending it off to more agents. Then I’ll get back into working on the assassin book full time again.

Episode 8 of Mr. Snaggle’s Oddities comes out tomorrow. It will be the second to last part of the story, since we don’t want to get up to 10 parts on any given story. In all it looks like the story will end up about 11,500 words. Does that still stand within short story limitations? *gives an evil little laugh* I love this story a lot, easily one of my best works so far. Things are about to turn a lot darker, so look forward to that.

Some people have been asking me about my projects listed on the front page. Everywhere on the site they are only hinted and “coming soon.” I thought I would go ahead and fill people in about what I’ve been doing since finishing The Forest Awakens at the end of July.

Assassin’s Tale, Adult Fantasy

That is not the title I’ll use for the book, but it sums up what I’m going for. When I have a title I’ll let you guys know. I have always loved to read both fantasy and espionage, so it makes sense for my third book to be a fun mix of the genre’s. It will be mostly fantasy, so no guns or advanced government spy organizations, more back to the basics. Knives will be a popular weapon choice among thieves.

The book will track the protagonist while his life is, to some degree, falling apart. Once an honored soldier turned merchant’s guard, he finds himself on a downward spiral that leads him to become an assassin with the fate of two kingdoms caught in his schemes of revenge.

The novel will really be about the protagonist. I wanted to tell a detailed story of what it takes to break an honorable man and turn him into a deadly adversary. I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

I’m estimating 100,000 words for this book. It’s plotted out at 38 chapters, using 2500 words/chapter as my rough estimate. I have about 12,000 completed. This project began in the middle of July.

Tuesday Night Story #3, Mr. Snaggle’s Oddities

I can hardly believe that we’re already on the 3rd TNS! This has been so much more fun than I expected when it began. To those that haven’t been keeping up, every Tuesday night I post roughly 1100 words of a continuing story. When story #2 began, my good friend David Carroll offered to record the stories each week. So TNS got an upgrade and became a podcast as well! You can find it on iTunes if you’re interested. See the mp3 player on the front page to listen to recent episodes.

Mr. Snaggle’s Oddities is a new style of writing for me. It is my first attempt at such a young voice. This one is a children’s tale about a strange new circus that has come to young Peter’s street. The circus is run by old Mr. Snaggle and it all seems just a bit too good to be true.

*****

That’s what I’ve been up to lately. Feel free to tell me about your latest projects in the comments. And make sure to check back tomorrow for the beginning of Mr. Snaggle’s Oddities! It may be one of my favorite story ideas yet.