So, when last I left you in April, I had 50K words on the Moon Lake Book 2 manuscript. Four months later that word count has jumped to 62K.

That’s not a lot. I’m well aware. The thing is, sometimes I tell myself, “Just shit out a story already. Who cares if it’s good? Who cares how many subplots and how much character development it has? Just get it done!”

So the second Moon Lake book has grown from 30K words to 57K words, just a little over halfway done. It’s the only partially completed manuscript I have, but I am working on it, tinkering away. I’m watching a lot of film noir, The Thin Man, Chinatown, Moon Lake just has that noir feel to it, even though it’s set in the woods of Idaho.

In the background, I’m contemplating a book about Elizabeth Taylor, specifically the movie Cleopatra, which gets a bad rap as “the movie that bankrupted the studio and changed Hollywood” but let’s be honest, the studio was already in the red even before the picture was thought of and it wasn’t Liz’s fault that they tried to shoot it in England and pretend it was Egypt.

The Rites of Spring in my house include wiping down the baseboards, washing the windows, and watching Enchanted April for like the fourteenth or fifteenth time. Sometimes I follow it up with Ladies in Lavender, Tea with Mussolini, or My House in Umbria. But I’ve put it all off this year for Rebecca. Despite having 2 copies (because I’ve been meaning to read it for so long that I forgot I bought the first copy) I still haven’t read it.

But I’ve seen the movie twice now.

So apparently Brandon Sanderson broke the internet a few weeks ago with his record-breaking kickstarter campaign. I have only read two of his novels so far, but I do own several of his books that I’ve been saving back to start reading.

More importantly, back when I was writing Shooter in 2012, I watched EVERY SINGLE LECTURE of Sanderson’s from his time as a writing professor at BYU. I watched them multiple times and it was, hands down, the single greatest resource that helped me with my writing and figuring out how to actually complete a novel.

I don’t know why I’m doing this to myself. But…here it is, the book that paralyzed me for 5+ years. At the peak of Burnout, basking in my success as a self-published author, I launched Star Valley, a cowboy version of Burnout. I was so confident, so assured of its success that I did crazy things. I bought Kindle e-readers to giveaway at its launch. I spent tens of thousands of dollars on advertising. I even bought all the covers up front and put them on Goodreads, so sure I was that this series would be as well received as Burnout.

Update: I’m officially retired from writing. Maybe now I can finally relax and take a deep breath.

Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed the books and be well!

So I nearly drowned at an oxygen bar to bring you Star Valley.

No, really.

Only me, right?

I went to Wyoming with KiKi to see the sights and get a feel for the place. KiKi gets carsick easily and has to drive everywhere she goes. So she drove me all over the entire state of Wyoming while I hung out the window to take photos. I really do have great friends. I can text them at Midnight on a Saturday and not even phase them.

“Want to go to Wyoming and look around?”