Today I officially cracked the halfway point for Homeguard, Book 4 of the Kin Wars Saga. To say I’m giddy is an understatement, primarily because usually the second half of the book flies by at a faster pace for me. Considering that the first half took less than two months, my goal of having a finished product to turn in to the publisher on Jan 31 looks easily doable.

During this time I also nearly finished a short story for an upcoming Military Science Fiction anthology from a new publisher. Their first anthology did fairly well and I’m hoping that this only means sales are going to go up. I just need to put some polish on it and turn it in. Titled “A Chosen Moment Before”, it’s a look into a type of warfare that humanity has yet to face, and the consequences of trying to predict every little move in a fight to change the outcome. It’s also darker than normal, even though there are plenty of instances of humor threaded throughout.

My push to write for the Black Library (publishers of Warhammer 40k) continues.

The new diet I started Jan 1 has allowed me to shed weight like crazy. Amazing how much weight I’ve lost by merely cutting out bread and sugar. 17 pounds down so far. Doc says I should be 170 pounds, at which I laughed. I’m gunning for 190. Replacing bread with sweet potatoes has been interesting, but I am loving the meat/veggie only diet. Plus I’ve been really cutting back on caffeine, albeit slowly. I’ve done cold turkey quitting of caffeine before. It’s not pretty.