Past the halfway point!

OMG! Has it been that long already without an update?

Sadly, yes it has been that long.

There is not much to report on terms of the job hunt, I might a have a couple of viable offers coming my way so I have my fingers crossed. I am still sending resumes and talking and emailing to any headhunter registered in Mexico City. I am less anxious to be honest, and I am starting to enjoy the time I have been given to spend with my kids and with my wife.

On the novel front, progress has been steady. I am now way beyond the halfway point. I am now sitting on 90k words, so now only 60k words are left. I am really enjoying this part of the writing experience, seeing the story advance, seeing my characters evolve before my eyes is a feeling that I cannot describe.

On the last post, I wrote about going the Independent route in terms of publishing, and I still feel strongly that my novel will be published that way. Traditional publishing might not be dead yet, but I am willing to take my chances with my story using the social platform I have been carefully building for the past year.

However, I am starting to think that I will need an editor. And those don't come cheap. In addition, some small publishing groups will help you convert your document into an e-book, and give a professional cover art as well as some sort of marketing for your book, for a small percentage. The conundrum is wisely choosing what I want to do with my book once it is finished. I know I am going to have to edit it myself in order for the second draft to be ready, rewriting what needs to be changed, etc. But I feel that I will need an expert's take on the book before committing to any publishing ideas. Editing means I am going to have to invest some serious money on the book, about 1500 dollars. This is a good problem to have, because it means that I am one step closer of finishing the novel!

I have been reading a lot, going this way and that...flip flopping between Fantasy and Sci-Fi and some Anne Rice.

I finally read the Wolf Gift by Anne Rice, her return to the supernatural world. I am one of her biggest fans, but I have to admit that the last Vampire Chronicles books were not my cup of tea, to say the least. I don't want spoil the Chronicles to anyone who have not read them, but the last two books were a big disappointment to me. This book is...strange. Not in theme but in structure. The main character did not feel real to me, the circumstances surrounding the story were not there for me either. The story was engaging once I got past my dislike of the protagonist. Again, I won't spoil the book and give away the whole plot. But in my opinion, Ann Rice followed the same pattern from her last Chronicles books and from her Seraphim series, which is to ramble around the story.

I also read Empire, an Orson Scott Card novel. I love his books, the Ender series, Pastwatch, I even read his horror book. This one though, is very different. It is fast paced, it is complicated, it is a notch above anything I have read from him in terms of vocabulary and difficulty. It is a very good interpretation of what might happen in the U.S. or in any country in the world where the views between the left and right are so radically different and noxious. A good back drop to my country's own electoral disputes. A good read overall.

And I also read I, Robot. I love this book. The way Asimov intertwines his stories, the way he portrays his characters, the hard and critical view of how things turned out by Dr. Susan Calvin just transports me into the future Asimov envisioned.

I am halfway through Robert Jordan's New Spring, the prequel to the Wheel of time of series. I am preparing for the marathon of re-reading the WOT series again before the last book launches, and I am also still reading The Second Generation, The Hero of Ages and have just started Warbreaker.

Hope you all have a great week end, hopefully I will see you next week!

Saying goodbye and hello!

Hello all! I have not been able to update the blog because I have been very busy. Closing down the operations on the plant has been demanding, more emotionally than physically, but still, there are many things that need to be taken care of. I only know that my time in there is coming to an end, and I need some closure. I have always been one to close the lid on a period of my life and never look back, for better or for worse. I intend to do the same thing. What was done or not done, the 'ifs' surrounding this decision have no place in my life now. It is time to move on, time to part ways and time to embark on whatever life has stored up for me. But again, I need to close the door of 15 years worth of experiences and memories. Just today, we contacted someone to help us sell the hundreds of books my dad had accumulated, many of these I read, many of these were the first glimpse of the wonderful world of literature. I could not keep them because I have no place to put them, I have been busy buying my own books for the past 20 years. However, the memories of spending summer vacations down there, the bike rides in the park near the office, the feel and the smell of the place, those things, and those memories will be with me forever.

So, I have been spending my time between the office and my home, looking for work, and let me tell you, besides from the irrational anxiety that has taken a hold of my already shaky mental health, it is a boring exercise of futility. The fact that I have to input my resume into each and every company's database is exhausting. A good friend of mine has given me some of his contacts in the headhunting business, and I am now going to go that route. I am still sending out resumes to my own contacts, still looking for interviews, still pestering the good and bad souls that reside inside Human Resources offices, and my urgency to find a job is still there, believe me, but I can't spend all day glued to the computer looking for jobs in portals like Monster or OCC.

So my alternative has been a rather easy one. I write. I am writing like I have never written before, fluidly, not effortlessly, but I am hitting my word count goals in days instead of weeks. And so, I am pleased to announce that my first book, The Druid's Grove, will be available sometime by the end of this year. But this decision, triggered by the mighty surge of writing, has given me also reasons to think about the route I want to take with publication.

So I have decided that this series will be an Indie effort.

Why? Well, I am a planner, I plan everything, and I make outlines of outlines just to make sure the plan is still there. I have envisioned a path I wanted to take with my writing a long time ago, but seriously, two years ago I decided it was time to write the damn book and to get on the program. The outline cannot and will not wait!

I have four stories far enough in their development that I could have chosen from, but in the end I went with these story, an epic fantasy series, to make my debut as and Indie author. The remaining three stories are still waiting in the wings, and at least one of them is going to go through the tortuous and highly archaic route of traditional publishing. That story has been with for more than half my life now, and I vowed that I would send that one to publishing companies.

However, I believe that the Indie route is the most efficient way to carve a path into a consistent fan base and to connect to via social media to those that are willing to pay to read one of my books.

I would also like to expand more on the Indie topic, and will gladly do so next week.

So, that is what I have been up to, reading a lot, writing a lot, looking for work...a lot, and just trying to enjoy the time I have free to spend with my family and friends.

No book reviews or game reviews this time...although I did get a 30-day trial on both of my WOW accounts and I did give them a look. I have found farming and fishing soothing and relaxing, but not so much the grind of dailies. I will write about my tentative return to WOW next week.

Have a great week!