Happy New School Year!

It's been a very long time since I was in school, and even when I was in school, we seldom waited until after Labor Day to start. We were usually back sometime in August. Even so, the day after Labor Day always feels like a second New Year's Day to me, a fresh start on the year, a time to start new things or reboot things that fell by the wayside during the summer.

I was actually pretty productive this summer (released a book, wrote a book, went to a bunch of conventions), but I still went through the Labor Day exercise of planning the rest of the year and coming up with schedules and goals. One thing I'm trying to do is optimize my days. As much as I've railed against the perception that early risers are more virtuous and productive, while night owls are considered lazy if they sleep late, even if they're working late into the night, I've come to the realization that I'm a lot more productive when I get up reasonably early. It's still not early for someone who has to be at work at eight and has a commute, but if I get up between 7 and 7:30, my day tends to go better and I get more done. I manage to get some exercise and housework done in the morning in addition to my usual morning routine, and I may even get additional promo work and a start on writing-related work done before lunch. When I stay up later at night, I don't usually get more work done. There's just more goofing-off time. That may change if I get another one of those books that only wants to be written at night, but for now, I'm giving this a shot. I can always adjust as things change.

This week's priority is getting Book 8 ready to go to the copyeditor. Then I'm going to spend some time going through branding exercises so I can hire a web designer and get a graphic identity developed. Meanwhile, I'm starting to think about the next Rebel Mechanics book, and I'll be doing some development on that so I can start writing it as soon as Book 8 is in production and out of my hands. I've decided that next year is when I really want to sell this house and get a new one, so I want to boost my income, and that means getting more books out there. I proved to myself that I can write a good book quickly if I just make it a priority and dedicate the time to it. I track the amount of time I actually spend writing, and I'm on track to pass the number of hours I spent all of last year this week. I'm sure my fans will be happy to have more books.