The September review is already here. The month has passed quickly. To be honest, September is a month during which I am totally consumed with my day job. Being a new academic year and seeing how I have several responsibilities at work, I either find the time slipping away with workload or exhaust myself, so I am of little use in the evenings. The photo shows one of my more engaging lessons at this time of year, a modern adaptation of the classic Mark Pullen Schools History Project lesson. Nevertheless, I still got a reasonable number of things done, mainly due to the space given by the morning commute.
September Review – word counts
Unlike July and August, I’ve not had a prolific month in terms of word counts. Instead, I’ve spent quite a bit of time on the editing process. For the first couple of weeks, I wrote at about half the daily pace of the previous months. For the second half of the month, I concentrated on editing. This means I fell short of my optimistic target of 1,000 words a day, and also my realistic target of 500 words a day. In total, I wrote 5,967 words, leaving me just 165 words short of my goal of 110,000 words for the year. However, it has been worth the distraction as my back catalogue needs tidying up.
September Review – works in progress
A short story set in the Royal Zombie Corps series. The title is provisionally ‘On discovering a zombie’. I’ve now finished a thorough edit of this, but have to proof-read it yet. Once it is released, it will only be available for people signing up to my mailing list
Book 5 of the Royal Zombie Corps series, titled ‘Outbreak London’ has had a thorough edit. I’m now halfway through proof-reading this. The cover brief was submitted on the last day of the month, and I’m looking forward to working to seeing the first drafts during October
Book 6 of the Royal Zombie Corps series, is awaiting my attention. It needs editing and proof-reading
Book 2 of the Butcher’s Funeral series is also awaiting an edit and proof-read
Book 7 of the Royal Zombie Corps series, is the current writing project. This has been put on hold so I can meet my upcoming deadlines
September Review – other projects
My first zombie book, Blood, Mud and Corpses, has now been wholly reedited and proof-read. It was uploaded to most channels early in September.
Publishing schedule
This remains unchanged, due to a reallocation of my time.
November 2019 – Outbreak London, book 5 of the Royal Zombie Corps series
December 2019 – book 6 of the Royal Zombie Corps series
January 2020 – Butcher’s Funeral book two
February 2020 – book 7 of the Royal Zombie Corps series
Plans for October
I am going to aim for a low average of 2-300 words a day of new writing. I have limited time at the moment and need to focus on the editing process
Publish a short story on the blog. This has been on the list for a while. I wrote the story a couple of years ago. I really need to get it done. An edit has been completed, but I still need to give it another proof-read. Realistically, this will not happen in October
Release the new Royal Zombie Corps short story to the mailing list and advertise it on Facebook. The editing was completed in September.
Finish the proof-reading of Outbreak London and work with the cover artist on the finalisation of the cover
Continue to learn about publishing and writing, specifically working through one of the Mark Dawson SPF courses