As I move forward in my writing career, I’ve been learning more about the business side of the adventure. I’ve successfully registered a Limited Liability Company and acquired an Employer Identification Number. Next I need to setup a business bank account and apply for a business license. More steps follow, but getting that far will be a major milestone.

I continue to learn as I continue to make progress.

The parts for the book are coming together. Files for the hardback and paperback print versions, the ebook version, and covers for all three are ready. Many tasks still remain on the to do list, but I’m getting there. More stories are in progress, but work on them has been slowed because of these other tasks.

I’ve been learning more about archetypal character arcs. When I first began writing, I created stories based on the Hero’s Journey framework, which uses the hero archetypal character arc. As those stories developed, I realized they didn’t quite fit that archetype. My main characters tend toward the maiden archetypal character arcs, which is about the challenges of becoming an autonomous individual as a character moves from a state of child-like innocents to being an independent and responsible adult. With greater understanding of these character arcs, I see how they apply to various characters in my stories. This will help me improve my story telling. I’m excited to delve deeper.

While in high school, I did freelance photography for a local newspaper. One assignment was to create a photo story to go with a feature article about a man and woman who published their own books. I don’t mean vanity publishing where one pays a publisher to publish your book. This couple hand printed and bound their books.

The woman wrote poetry. The man typeset the book using a composing stick, loaded the composed lines of type into a galley, and then used a screw press to print. Those printed pages were hand stitched together, trimmed, and bound in a hardback cover. I was amazed by the process. Ever since, I’ve wanted to print my own book.

What I’m doing now is probably as close as I’m going to get to physically making a book. I have typeset my Utopia Origins anthology. After more proof reading to ensure nothing has gone wrong, a print-on-demand publisher will print the book. It’s exciting.

There is more work to do before reaching my goal, but I’m getting closer as I tick off each task.

Many of my skills and experiences are adjacent or even contiguous with the skills needed to publish a book. All I have to do is learn the aspects of the process I don’t know. That is a challenge — there is so much to understand — but I am learning, even if the process seems slow and tedious.

I spent the month editing, submitting more stories to various markets, and studying the many aspects of independently publishing a book. Ebook and print book formats are selected and a cover concept art created, but I still have a lot of work to do.

While I have been editing various stories, I haven’t written any new material lately. The stuff in my head desperately wants to be written. I need to take some time to satisfy that urge.

I’ll get there.

I continue to work on creating my Utopia Origins anthology by adding print book layout skills to my ebook layout skills. It’s a lot of work with many things to learn, but it is rewarding and worth it.

I rendered a test image of one of my dragons to help visualize a possible cover. That was fun.

And, the first few days of October will see more submissions going out.

Onward I go.

I continue to work on Utopia Origins by making more edits and studying best practices for eBooks and print books. The work never ends.

I’m also working on Hope and the Last Dragon. Hope needs to feed a baby dragon. Dragons are obligate carnivores. She has to find something she has access to to feed him that doesn’t make him sick at his stomach (she discovers fruit doesn’t work). I researched mock-meat. In real life, making mock-meat from vegetable proteins is not easy. In this story, hand-waving* and phlebotinum** will be needed to allow Hope to prepare food that works for the dragon.

The Nyxie and Sky story is also roiling in my head, but I can’t spend time on it yet.

In addition to all of that, I’m waiting for more submission windows to open so I can send out more short story submissions.

Interminable effort, but indomitable persistence.

* Hand-waving: Not explaining a detail in a story while expecting the reader to accept that it exists and works.

** Phlebotinum: A versatile substance that may be rubbed on anything to cause an effect needed by a story’s plot.