Time for more reassurance that I’m still alive and still working on my books. The answers are–mostly, and yes.

I spent my holiday week, as it turned out, tending to other matters in my life. The kinds of things that build up at the fringes when you have a job, a writing career, a side hustle, and a family. Vehicle maintenance. House maintenance. Life maintenance. I started another business, but that’s beside the point.

Part of life maintenance is to reflect on where I’ve been and where I’m currently sailing. I circle these questions sometimes, stalking them like a predator hunting a meal. I go down these flights of fancy, sometimes thinking that I’d be happier living in an RV and roaming the endless miles of road that crisscross North America. Sometimes I even imagine myself living on a sailboat, traversing the seas and writing novels. My ideal life would split my time between sailboat maintenance, fishing, and writing. I don’t know about you, but that sounds wonderful to me. Bring on the sea.

I’m a little crazy, to be honest. The wars ruined me. They made me into this tortured creature that can’t stop thinking about going over the horizon. The longest I’ve stayed anywhere post-Army is here in Southern Arizona. Even this longest period was broken up by a year living in Mexico.

I love it here more than anywhere I’ve been, but even with the nice weather and great food, I can’t stop thinking of moving on. Part of me needs the new experiences and some kind of struggle to deal with, something more interesting than utility bills and which restaurants to try.

Maybe that’s why my son and I play Helldivers 2 all the time. At least there, the Galactic War awaits our attention. Life is kind of boring these days, ain’t it? Even the burning of all our political systems and endless wars and the surging nature of the economy… honestly, that’s kind of boring, too. I’m tired of it. I want something more outdoorsy.

Time to change the channel.

Anyways, I’m tortured over where to spend my time and which projects deserve my energy. My wife usually helps me find clarity there, and she helped me this week, too. This next year is my Year of Books. With the end of The Seven Signs approaching, it’s the end of an era for me. I have so many projects plotted out and waiting to be written. Next year, I plan to release many of them. I want two more series out by the end of next year. I want my podcast revived by the end of next year.

I want to be on a sailboat or in an RV the year after. We’ll see what happens.

Anyways, the final chapter for The Heart of the Wasteland is all plotted out, and dictation begins tomorrow morning. I’m a little nervous, to be honest. It’s the last chapter of the last book of a huge series–a huge part of my life. I’m scared to get it wrong, so I do a lot of preparation. Here’s a little picture of my roadmap.

I was naive enough to believe, when I set out to finish this, that the last chapter would be shorter than the preceding ones. I told myself I wouldn’t need so many POVs because the characters were together now. I could tell the stories through the eyes of fewer characters and all would be well.

You see what happened, though. As turns out, so many things need to happen. Character arcs need their endings. So it will be huge, and that’s that. Each one of those scenes has an outline and notes attached to it. Those brackets next to “Dormael 16” are meant to indicate The Big Event. So the end is near, ya’ll. It’s coming.

In other news, make sure to keep an eye on Kickstarter. I’ll be launching Through Burning Skies soon.

Much love, ya’ll, and I’ll type at you next week.