It's Autumn Time!

Why hello there, little icon on my dock that says "OCT." How does the time fly by? How? I swear, as I get older, time goes faster. It's kinda scary, actually. Almost like Sci-Fi, but more like Sci-Non-Fi. Is that even a thing? .....<Jesse shrugs>..... Well, it is now!

Over the past 9 months, I've been dedicating time to writing The Shadow Wielder, a fantasy novel that has evolved into something very dear to me. I love the characters and people I have created. I feel for their predicaments. I think of them often. And even though I have an outline of the story, I'm not precisely sure what will happen to them. In other novels, strange things have happened, changing the outcome of plots, surprising me... the writer!

So an update. I'm 76,000 words into the novel. For those who don't think of books in terms of words, this roughly translates to 304 pages. Pretty cool! I am about 2 chapters away from finishing part 2 of 3. That means I'm swiftly approaching the climax of my plots. Which is both a lot of fun and a lot of work. Tightening things up and not leaving any plot holes open is hard work. But it is this part that makes writing the other 2 parts worth it... coming to the end!

Distractions are abound, particularly this Autumn time. On Tuesday, October 6th, Brandon Sanderson's next Mistborn novel, Shadows of Self, is being released. After rereading all 4 previous Mistborn books over the past couple of months, I'm all ready for it! On October 27th, Halo 5: Guardians is releasing, so I'll have hours of campaigning on the hardest difficulty in that game. The Halo story is amazing, and I love spending time in it! Ramping up in November is the StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void expansion. Another solid story I love! In December, Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens releases. With all of these awesome distractions, I have the goal to finish The Shadow Wielder in November, and at the very latest, before the end of the year. I do, after all, have a wife and 2 kids I love spending time with, and I refuse to sacrifice that time for ANY reason!

Some food for thought from my most recent chapter in The Shadow Wielder: Sometimes we need to traverse through darkness to find the light. Also, freedom is relative. Breaking free from one form of oppression might lead us into another. Keep your eyes and mind open!