Been a while since I posted any kind of progress on my work. So I thought I ought to remedy that today.

Bob has come a small way in recent efforts. The Many Labors of Bob stands at a full quarter edit on revision draft one. I have made some conscious efforts to step away from it in order to allow it to steep. I was once told by an academic director I respected from my time in college that sometimes you have to step away from your creations and leave them be for a bit. When you come back you’ll have a more critical eye and will see the best way to make the proper adjustments.

So, I’ve been doing that. In the meantime I’ve been watching a bit of television and film. I’ve read quite a bit. As Dennis Tafoya is so fond of saying in our Novel In Nine Months course: “read well to write well.” I got through The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins), The Strain (Guillermo del Toro/Chuck Hogan), The Fall (Guillermo del Toro/Chuck Hogan), Greek Street (Peter Milligan), False Gods (Graham MacNeil on audio), Machine Man (Max Barry) and For the Emperor (Sandy Mitchell).

I also started drawing again. Many things from my Ossua idea came about again. Then there’s also been the odd doodle here or there (Cube Jockey comes to mind). But, sometime in the past couple of days, a new idea has arisen to nest in my brain and it’s now a tidy little twenty-thousand word sprint towards a more full idea. It’s also a completely different type of story from TMLoB. It has a more sci-fi/horror vein to it, set in an ecologically ravaged American South. It’s been fun following Cale and Adrienne through Okeechobee Bay (you read that right – the lake is now a bay) and getting involved with more than they can handle.

However, it is time to focus on Bob again, and that started tonight. The work progresses and I find more and more rookie mistakes as I go. The first half of the novel is truly different from the latter half in terms of tone and polish – I have a long way to go, but I am getting there.

I also have registered for NaNoWriMo this year under the handle Burtacamoose. Feel free to hit it up and keep track of things once November hits.

And with that said, there’s work to be done.