How It’s Going - August 2026

My second book, Pacifica, is well underway. I'm on my third draft.
One thing I've been thinking about recently is developing my writing process. I suppose you need to get through quite a few books, or stories, to know what your process is. And only having one published book means that's my one data point.

The Neighbors evolved as I wrote it. I started with an outline, and then it evolved a little as I wrote.
For Pacifica, I worldbuilt a little, outlined a plan, wrote the first draft... and then the story changed a ton by the time I got to the end of the first draft. So in the second, I straightened it out. And now for the third, I know all the smaller changes I need to make to match the end—the character voices, the foreshadowing, etc. I'm liking the book, but I do feel ready to move on to the next stories already. Writing—discovering the story—is the fun part. It's almost like reverse reading. Then the prose is refined to give other readers a similar experience. Get them to feel what I felt while I was writing it. It's amazing.

I've been busy and inconsistent this year, but I'm streaking at the moment. I'm planning on releasing the book on the winter solstice, but that's unofficial. I wanted to release it on the fall equinox, which will be the one year anniversary of The Neighbors, but I'm too far behind.

I've been thinking about what process to try for my next book, which will still be in the Mount Jewel universe, just in the future. (Pacifica is a fantasy, set far in the past.) I recently thought I might just not plot at all, and just start writing a first draft and see where it takes me, fully planning on rewriting multiple times. I didn't plan on doing a full rewrite of Pacifica, but that's what happened, so a lot of my worldbuilding and planning went out the window anyway, and was a bit of a “waste of time”. I'm not sure how often I'll return to the Mount Jewel universe after these next two books are done. I'm learning as I go.

Otherwise, life is good. I won a jiu jitsu tournament. I've read 12 books this year already, and am on pace to spend more time reading than any other year previously. That feels nice. Right now I'm reading Alan Watts' Joyous Cosmology during the day and Rebecca Yarros' Fourth Wing at night. Both are tremendous. I had just read Meditations for the third time, and Seneca before that, so Alan is here to remind me that I'm not a mind at war with my body, but instead I'm one with it. One with IT. One.
And that reminder feels good. Nothing brings me peace like that reminder.

My dear reader, I hope you are having a wonderful summer. If you want to talk, reach out.

Things are good.