Well, I haven’t started 2017 very well in terms of blog faithfulness, have I? I’m trying to establish and keep a Monday and Friday posting schedule. Clearly, since this is my first post in 2017, I missed the first Monday and first Friday.

Yesterday I worked hard on my novel-in-progress, as I had Saturday. Between the two days I added just short of 6,000 words. As I wrote on Sunday, I remembered the blog and made a note to carve out some time to write a post. Alas, I didn’t do so.

Part of the problem is knowing what to write. I need to do a summary of 2016 post, for book sales, and maybe another one for writing progress. I’m waiting, however, on Smashwords to report possible late 2016 sales. I’m not expecting any, but I’ll wait for a little while. I can write a summary of my writing at any time, and will try to do that before long.

Then, I’m brainstorming a “publishing plans” post for 2017, as I’ve done for every year. I’m close to setting my annual goals, after which I can write that post. I think it’s going to be a week or so before I do.

So, for today, I’ll just mention current writing work.

As I said, I got back to work on Preserve The Revelation this weekend. The last time I’d written on it was Dec. 26. I had been thinking much about it in the interim, and had worked out some plot lines. So I was hoping the writing would go well, but, since getting back into it after a break is hard, I wasn’t sure. It turned out it did go well. I got away from the minutia of the travels of my protagonist, and began the last big external conflict. The last conflict he goes through will be internal. I’ve brainstormed that a little. I’m now down to the last 5,000 words I would say. That will make it an approximately 77,000 word book; shorter than I had figured, but not too short for the genre. If I can add 500 to 750 words several nights this week, I’ll be finished with it next weekend.

In the evenings, after I finish writing, I’m reading in two different books on the Civil War. This is research for my (currently) abandoned work, Documenting America: The Civil War Edition. I estimate I brought it to about 40 percent done in 2015, when I started struggling with it, and laid it aside. When I finish my current work-in-progress, I figure on shifting to that and trying to finish it. I think I can do it. It will be part of my 2017 publishing plan.

The other thing I’m doing is spending a half hour or so each morning, of my quiet time at work, building my Thomas Carlyle Chronological Composition Bibliography. I’m currently working in August 1840. My sense is that most of the hard work is behind me. From this point on Carlyle wrote mainly longer works, more easily traced and documented. He has a few miscellaneous things, but they are limited, and prior researchers seem to have them well documented. The hard part is over. I’m going to keep working on this. With luck, I’ll be able to publish it in 2018.

That brings my few readers up to speed with my current writing. I’m also planning a couple of writer interviews over the next month, so hopefully you’ll see those posts.