Another month went by, and it’s been quite different from what I thought it would be. Since in summer time businesses slow down, I expected some downtime in my freelancing business. It meant that I would have time to participate in Camp NaNoWriMo to which I promptly signed up at the end of June. Of course, life decided to prove me wrong, and July turned out to be a whirlwind.

Writing

With my assumption of more free time in July, I made an ambitious goal of writing 50,000 words during the Camp. Yet, in the very first week I already got swamped with work, and as projects kept coming, I quickly realized I wouldn’t make it. At the same time, I thought it was the last minute pre-vacation rush, and the rest of the month would be much quieter. I cut the goal to 20,000 with an assumption that I would be able to to easily reach 30-35,000 words.

As you might guess, I was wrong. My whole July was extremely busy, and I struggled to get enough words down. By the end of the month, I was nearing 12,000 words, and even though I was determined to fight to the end, I also knew that I was unlikely to meet my goal.

Yet, thanks to wonderful J. Morgyn White who cheered me on in the last day, I managed to write over 5,000 words in the last day of the Camp, validating my total an hour before the deadline. A Fissure of Magic is nowhere near being completed, but I’m still happy that I managed to make a significant progress in such a busy month.

Art & Writer’s Life

Of course, with the mixture of work and writing, I didn’t really have time to work on any art. All that I managed were several dragonflies. I miss working on my art, so I hope in the upcoming months I’ll have time to do something more, including finishing the pieces I started some time ago.

Mid July, Broadswords & Blasters published their 10 issue, and my short story, Yet Another Vessel, was part of it. Since I rarely stray to the darker side of fantasy, I was happy that the magazine liked it enough to include it in their publication.

And with all the rush of July, I’m ready for at least a week off, spent on reading and playing video games. How about you?