So, here’s a note on my progress this summer: write-a-thon or general, it’s kind of the same. This is just an update for anyone interested in a progress report. 

• As I noted on my earlier post, I finished up a redraft/expansion of an adventure I was hired to write. That’s in the hopper to be read. There may be more edits to be done, I’m waiting to hear back. 
• I split my writing time over the past couple of weeks between two projects.
• The first project is an expansion of a novella of mine, “Asshole Island,” into a full novel of (I think) about 75,000 words. I’ve just hit 85% of that length, and it seems like it’s a pretty good number. In practical terms, I’ve gotten the manuscript from about 55,000 words to 63,000. 
• The second project is new: basically, inspiration hit and I wrote up a few scenes. It’s not something from any of my list of project ideas: this was something brand new. It’s sort of… I guess it’s horror, or weird, anyway. We’ll see if it has legs. I wrote 5,000 words of it in a single day, so at least I know I have some impetus with the thing. I’ll sit down with it again and see if that energy’s still there: if so, I’ll keep going with it for a while, until I get to a natural stopping point, and then see what kind of a project it seems to be shaping up to be. At the moment, it could, in theory, fit into another project I have been planning, but I’m not sure it’s the right place for it, and it may be that this thing should be its own story. I’m not sure. 

I’m pushing hard to make progress right now because I often get a lot less done during the summers than I hope or bank on, plus I’m going to have to take some time off writing at the end of the month when my son is recuperating from an operation, so… better to get what I can done now. 

I have one week left in my summer course. I hope to have “Asshole Island” finished by the time the course ends, and it should be possible if I push hard. 

At that point, I think I’ll throw myself into the Gin Craze novel reworking till the end of the month, and see where I land with it. But for tonight, I’m going to take a break: my back and shoulders are hurting—too much sitting and typing, not enough sleep and relaxation—and I’ve earned a little off-time, I think.