I only posted one update over the past couple of weeks because I was visiting family, and for at least a week of that time, I didn’t have an internet connection.  Some people might find no internet liberating, but I’m not one of them because I pretty much run my life and work through a laptop and the internet.  I also don’t have a problem setting the computer aside, so I’m able to disconnect when I want or need to, but I do like having the option to get online during quiet times in the evening or morning (I’m an early riser), so I can connect with friends, or crank off a small work assignment so the pile on my desk isn’t so mountainous when I return home (unfortunately, that mountain is a higher than usual today—and yes, I’m procrastinating by posting here!).

But being disconnected and busy with family, some of whom I haven’t seen in several decades, didn’t mean I was idle on the writing front.  As was one of my annual writing goals, I managed to write almost every day while traveling, and during those times I might have been on the internet, say, writing posts for here, I crammed in even more writing.  By the end of it, I wrote almost 9,000 words in 9 days.  That may not seem like a lot to some, but that’s a decent total for me.

Most of those words were added to the first draft of book three of my Calypto Cycle, and I’m now nearing the halfway mark of that installment.  All the episode’s ground work has been laid and the players introduced, and things are really starting to get fun for my main character.  I only hope the back half of the story writes itself as easily as the front.  Shameless plug time: Book One of the Calypto Cycle should be out this calendar year (release date TBD), so you’re going to hear a lot more about it from me in the coming months.

I guess what I wanted to tell everyone is that writing can be done anywhere and anytime, and if you want to succeed in the publishing business, I think writing needs to become a part of your daily life (that doesn’t, and shouldn’t, mean you can’t take days off!).   So while I may have been gone, I certainly wasn’t idle.