64,540 and 372 pages. Sometimes you just need a visit to a good therapist to set yourself back on track. Can't hurt, anyway.

61k and 351 pages. They keep circling round one another, but just can't quite sync up. They ARE getting rather close, in more intimate terms than just the physical. But they aren't quite there yet. And that simply won't do for a team.

Couldn't sleep thinking about the novel so I had to do a big overnight, another 20 pages. 58,030, 335 pages. Stolen moments are always the hottest. Especially when they involve a quickie at the office.

54,350 and 312p, now, and finally our heroes appear to have come to similar conclusions, if separately. Looks like we're making our way towards the final act of this little stageplay.

53,040 and 306 pages. The boys are back on the town.

Another 18 pages today, and with the help of an older and wiser friend? Our heroine appears to have made a decision to take full control of her destiny for a change...

251 pages, 43,360. And just when it felt like things were going so well. Our heroine is set adrift once more...only this time, she knows what she's lost. But not what to do about it.

Another 9 pages, and that detonation last night is starting to seem kind of scary.

12 pages, 39,900 and 231p. Looks like all that pent up emotion just spilled over...

37,760 and pushing 220p now. Aww, they're finally starting to open up. Before you know it, they might even grow on each other.

Another 12.pages, 36K and 208p total. Those Slavic girls are rather direct, aren't they?

Well, at least the declines are getting nicer...may be form letter template, but you do get the sense they at least gave the submission a read (unlike the quick response AI filter/intern rejections, which just piss creatives off...) Second one that felt almost personalized (sort of) in a week.

"Tech bros are implementing AI into everything despite its widespread unpopularity because they don’t like artists and want to remove the middle man. It has nothing to do with being innovative or propelling human creativity forward.

8 more pages, 34,046. Our heroine has just come to a disturbing realization, one she's not quite ready to admit even to herself.

8 more pages, 176p, 30,825. Campus Office hours are now in session.

12 more pages, 29,530 and an unexpected reunion. You really can't go back.

4 more pages. First night of forced cohabitation, a few drinks and already a close call? Good thing he's an old school Southern gentleman...

8 more pages so far, and circumstances have forced our heroine and her sub...ordinate into an unexpected cohabitation...

6 more pages, 24,400, 137p and we're learning a bit about our sassy lead...

So much awfulness carrying over from that abominable Year of the Snake. Now that we're cresting the wave of the Fire Horse, anyone else feeling a major change since this morning's blood moon? Only hoping it's for positive, liberating change. I, for one, have had quite enough of the bullshit.

5 more pages, 130p and 22,950. Nothing like a little light sexting at work to make things awkward...

Things still going at a (for me) glacial pace. 6 pages Thursday, 3 more just now. 125 pages, 22,120. A tentative step forward? Or is she still just running in place?

And just like that? Another 11 pages in the can. Inspiration strikes when and where it will...

This past several months has been the first true dry spell since I started this journey towards publication, late summer of 2023. In that time, I've written, edited and have ready for publication 25 novels, the 26th of which is still in production. I've done all the "right steps", vetted the work

AI specialist Shelley Palmer dropped this tidbit of not exactly unexpected confirmation:

Another 6 pages, 19,100 and 105p now. Time to hit the gym!

9 more pages today. We are living in a Shaw Brothers period picture, and I don't mean that in any good way. That is all.

Closing in on 75 pages, 18,500. Everything gets so complicated when you aren't sure of your own motivations, huh?

Banged out a few more pages. Between this and Wednesday, we're now at 13,100 and 61 pages. Halfway through breaking him in. No, not like THAT, get your filthy little minds out of the gutter. The fun stuff comes later.

More pages and polishing scenes yesterday. Just not in the mood today, those Congressional hearings yesterday turned my stomach. We live in an age of monsters, where money & connections purchase absolute license. I hear the sharpening of the blades. On whose heads they fall is entirely up to us.

51 pages, 10,950 now. Well, okay, I guess this one IS going to be my second sports-adjacent novel... The new and improved pairs are about to get into it.

Not what I'm doing stylistically or in genre, but the principle clearly applies. Just 20 rejections? Rookie.

Got in another 6 pages or so, now 45 pages, 9650. You know, I'm not sure whether friends playing matchmaker is a blessing or a curse, sometimes...

Finished up that blocked out scene from the other day, 40 pages and 8220 words now. Things are about to shift into a higher gear.

Evidently, agents:

6500 words and over 30 pages into my 26th (and second sorta-sports (ish) romance novel.

I'm sorry, but I just got followed by a British cemetery. How can any self respecting goth not respond in kind?

Fuck AI. Corporate suits "creating" stolen work in a patchwork collage & presenting it as original "art" to eliminate creatives from the endless churn of "product."

If you count a partially scripted one, we're now two scenes in the can on my 26th novel. The opener is fully edited. Final-edited the first dozen chapters of #25. Someday in the comparative future, 24 and 25 will be added to the rest in these endless, apparently fruitless rounds of queries...

I swear, that last belated query rejection was one of the most curt responses I've seen to date. Who knows, but to my mind? Could it be that gatekeepers don't like getting called out on their bullshit? #FoodForThought

Every once in a while I sit back & look at all the queries I've sent out, all the work I've done, & say God DAMN, did I really do all that? Something is very wrong with an industry where agents routinely form letter pass on so much quality work, probably just letting AI & interns reject for 'em.

Don't be fooled, AI is not a tool like computers & wi-fi or a program like Google Docs. It's being pushed as a flawed Trojan Horse to let the lazy give even less effort, but that's not the goal. It's entirely to allow the wealthy (publishers, producers, labels) "create" product without creatives.

Don't even TRY to defend AI. It's theft, pure and simple, the attempt to put creatives out of business and remove them and the very meaning of art - humanity and aspiration - from the production of soulless, factory churn "entertainment." Fuck AI. End this shit now.

I don't (write) SF myself, but Simon's a good egg, and he definitely writes spicy, for those so inclined. Cough.

And despite much adversity on the home front (in every sense of the word) I have just finished my 25th novel. 94,600 and 565p, final tally. Edits soon to come, and on to the next...

8 more pages today, 89,700. Oh, how the mighty have fallen, eh? Or is it just karmic justice?

Another 18 pages today, 534p and 88,100 words. There's been a proposal...but just like everything else in their relationship, it's all upside down, backwards and gender role reversed... Expect the unexpected (and kinky!) always.

Another 8 pages, 85,100. I guess that gift was a good one! Yes, we're well within spitting distance of the grand finale.