Oh, 2018.
I’m a better man for having gone through you, but I am also quite happy you are done with.
This last year was one of the most challenging years of my life. Don’t get me wrong, my first year of marriage was wonderful, but my wife and I faced things we never expected and certainly never would have asked for in our first year. This included a couple surgeries, a cancer diagnosis for my wife, another surgery to address the cancer, financial struggles, and the typical growing pains of blending a family together. The year also came with many blessings, including the news that my now cancer-free wife was pregnant. We’re expecting our first child together (to go along with our two girls) in June of this year!
But on to the usual literary matters:
As I wrote in my previous post, the book had taken somewhat of a back burner. This was due to the general busyness of being in a new marriage, building a new family, but also due to some severe writer’s block that left me struggling to bridge a couple chasms in my plot.
Over the holidays, my wife, kids, and I went to visit her parents in northeastern Montana. It’s a rather remote place with limited connectivity to the outside world, so I deemed it would be an excellent place to try to break through some of the writer’s block. Sure enough, I was able to fashion the bridges that could span the gaps in effective and powerful ways, and started pouring words into the project yet again.
Given this newfound spark, I’m setting some goals for this project in the coming year. One of my resolutions is to finally finish my rough draft. As it sits right now, the book is roughly 85,000 words. I’ve targeted 125,000 words assuming that roughly 25,000 would be cut during editing, but I’m going to write as long as it takes to tell the complete story. That said, I’m thinking This means I need to write 40,000 words this year (which is roughly one third of the book; this works out well as I’m just wrapping up Part II.)
In an effort to help me stick to it, I’ve decided to start a Patreon page for the project. On a weekly basis, I still see reviews and private messages trickle in on fanfiction.net and read of people who loved those stories and want to know about upcoming projects. I suspect there may be a few who still follow this blog and eagerly await news of the book’s release. Well, for those people who may want a more inside view of the project, as well as up to date information on its release, the Patreon will be a useful tool. In addition, the contributions people make will aid me more than financially. They will also keep me focused on writing regularly, providing updates, answering questions, etc.
If you’re interested in supporting me in this manner, please check it out here!
I will keep this blog updated from time to time, but the Patreon page will host most of my book related updates including some exclusive content.
I will finish this book and it will be worth the wait, that I can assure you!
–J.
The Hammer of Thor 
Hah Jeff, you are alive. Just popped by for old times sake and I see you’ve had quite the interesting few years. Will try to pop back sometime, maybe a little more often!
Blessings,
Peter