Priorities are funny things. What is important today may not be quite so important tomorrow.
Take, for example, Mik Murdoch, Boy Superhero. If you were take a guess and say it is my HIGHEST priority right now, you would be bang on. Until I get this baby launched, nothing will even come close in importance to me. However, three years ago, it wasn’t really even on the radar. I was working on several other projects and Mik was on the shelf. Then a little matter of Five Rivers taking an interest in it and KABLAM! Mik jumped to the top of the priority list.
That isn’t to say that I’m ignoring everything else. I haven’t missed an episode of Get Published in more than 2.5 years. That’s 87 episodes for those of you paying attention (actually, it is more, but the official episode number is currently 87). Even now that I’m on vacation, I will not be missing any. I pre-produced two episodes just to ensure that I wouldn’t miss a beat.
It did occur to me some weeks ago that I should probably be thinking of the next Mik Murdoch book. I talked it over with my publisher and we agreed that it would be very nice to have the second book ready for edits by the end of the year.
Once again, Mik Murdoch writing went from no-priority to near the top of the list.
I decided that I would try to write 500 words per day on the new book while I was on vacation. That would mean about 8,500 words on the book. Half-way through vacation, I’m only 250 words shy of that goal. That’s a BIG win, but it also reminded me that I do have other projects on the go that should currently be higher or on par with Mik Murdoch.
For example, Jeff Hite and I are editing the anthology, “A Method to the Madness, A Guide to the Super Evil”. I have work to do on that. JR Murdock and I have also written a steampunk novel tentatively titled, “Jack Kane and the Statue of Liberty”. I am doing the beta edits on it right now.
Both of those projects need and deserve some attention.
So, I’ve made a decision.
I will continue to work on Mik Murdoch 2, but only to the originally planned 500 words per day. Other writing (and reading and editing) will be put against the other two mentioned projects. The other two at both at the point where that extra time will be enough to ensure they get finished quickly.
So, MM2, which had made it to priority 1 during my vacation will now have to share the top spot with two other projects.
And that’s all right with me.
