Two Dreams, One Very Full Calendar
There is so much happening in the background at the moment.
I am still an author, working on the Aetherborn Heir trilogy, currently immersed in the second book.
However, in January 2027, I will also start my studies in graduate school, as a full-time student.
Apparently, I decided that my life needed another big project.
In all seriousness, I am very excited about my new venture, as I have been looking forward to commencing my postgraduate program for some time now, and my acceptance into the program was a very exciting moment.
The program I am starting (in January 2027) is the Master's of Library and Information Science with an concentration in School Library Media, so that I can become a school librarian.
I am thrilled to be able to start this new chapter of my life. However, as I embark on this new adventure, I wonder how my writing life will change.
Starting Graduate School in January 2027
Right now, an alarming amount of my time is currently invested in preparing for graduate school.
I've been communicating with my advisors, working out my course-planning options, deciding on requirements, and making sure that they all come together cohesively in the program.
And that's before I start the classes themselves.
When January rolls around, I'll be attending graduate school online: full-time, no holds barred, just straight book-learning. I will have courses three days a week in the evening. Which is a lot different for me. But my first semester will include a field experience, so I won't be stuck solely in a classroom, reading books, and doing homework. I'll also be able to apply my knowledge of library science in a real school library setting!
Which is exciting to me.
Becoming a school librarian is a different kind of goal than writing a fantasy novel, but both are very important to me. One is a career path that I wish to pursue, and the other is a creative writing venture that I've already launched; and juggling the two will be challenging.
I know that there will be periods in my life when one will overshadow the other. Weeks when school will consume me, and I'll have little time for writing. And weeks when I'll have more time, and can dedicate some of my time to working on the Aetherborn trilogy, or editing the other novels in my backlog.
I don't think balance means having both things take up equal amounts of time in my life
I think sometimes balance is recognizing that in a given period in my life, something else needs more of my attention. And not neglecting the other things entirely, even if they get less of my attention. Something I'm going to have to learn as I go.
So, Where Does That Leave Book 2?
Thankfully, Book 2 continues to live.
I am still working on it, and I felt the need to clarify this because, as an author, sometimes when you disappear, readers start speculating what happened to you.
I didn't just abandon the Aetherborn Heir trilogy.
I completed Draft 3 of my second book, but finishing a draft means that the book is completed, not finished.
In this stage, I am actually doing so many developmental edits and fixing any major story problems, so I am reading my manuscript again and again and asking myself questions that stretch far beyond the mechanics of what is going on.
Do my characters have arcs?
Are my story beats landing when they need to?
Is the pacing fine?
Are each of my plot threads being appropriately followed and fleshed out?
Are my scenes accomplishing what I want them to?
Is my story coherent when looked at as a whole?
Are there any continuity issues I should fix?
Are my characters doing things that make sense for them?
And most importantly:
Is this really the story I want to tell?
Developmental editing can be a slow process because you aren't just looking for grammatical errors, but rather you are looking at the story as a whole, seeing if each scene accomplishes what it needs to, going through the prose with a finer-toothed comb, changing dialogue, maybe even rewriting certain parts of the story or moving things around, or staring unflinchingly at the page until you realize that something is wrong and you need to do something about it.
It's a tiresome but necessary process that I would rather do than rush and release the book just because I had a deadline in my head, so I can meet the expectations I know many people have for my book.
My Goal for the Rest of 2026
My primary goal for the remainder of this year is to get a significant amount of the developmental work completed before December.
I'm hoping to get the majority of the story level issues resolved so that I can move onto the next stages of editing.
That means line editing, copy editing, grammar, punctuation, etc.
There is something oddly satisfying about getting to a point where you're arguing over the placement of a comma instead of the presence or absence of an entire plot thread.
But I'm not there yet.
For now, I'm focusing on ensuring the foundation is solid.
Once the developmental work is in a good place, I can start focusing harder on polishing the prose and getting ready for formatting.
My hope is that I can get book 2 in a solid enough place that I can start working on a formatted version for my ARC readers in January.
And let me be clear about that.
January is a goal for preparing the manuscript for ARCs. It is not a guarantee of a publication date.
I don't want people skimming this text and thinking I've just announced that Book 2 is coming out in January.
I haven't.
There are several stages to go between developmental editing and a finished book, and I don't want to promise a publication date before I know the manuscript is actually ready.
I know how easy it is to take an author's stated date and put it in your head as a certain day. I've done that as a reader myself.
So I'd rather be honest than create a false sense of expectation later.
Learning How to Make Room for Both Dreams
One of the trickiest pieces of this next scenario is that both of these options appeal to me.
I am not choosing graduate school as a means of escaping writing,
and
I am not choosing to write as a means of avoiding the future I am creating with my graduate work.
I want to become a school librarian
I also want to continue to write books
and
I am trying to work out a way to make both of these goals happen.
Writing a novel is a commitment to time as it is; writing one while also studying towards my Master's degree and completing my field experience is going to require me to be even more intentional about how I spend my free time.
I am likely going to have to start budgeting my writing time instead of writing when I have spare moments.
Some days I will only have an hour; some days my schoolwork will need to come first; and some weekends I will be able to disappear into the Aetherborn world and lose myself in a different reality for several hours. I am trying not to think about all of these changes as things I am losing, but rather things I am making space for. As our lives change, so do our schedules and priorities. Our passions should not fade away, but rather be rearranged to fit within the constraints of our new normal.
What This Next Chapter Looks Like
I think this is going to be such an exciting season of my life.
I get to learn how to be a school librarian while I learn how to be a better author.
I get to read and study for grad school while I read my own manuscript for the hundredth time.
I get to learn about libraries and education while I worry about fictional kingdoms, magic, characters, plot twists, and if I accidentally broke my own continuity somewhere in Chapter 27.
It's a strange mix.
But it's my life, and I'm so very thrilled about it.
I have no idea how quickly Book 2 will move along now that January rolls around, I have no idea about how my schedule will affect my writing, and I have no idea about what will be easy and what will be twenty minutes of staring at a wall of the writing process.
I imagine there will be a blend of the two.
What I do know is that I am still here.
I am still working on it.
I am still building the Aetherborn Heir trilogy.
I still care deeply about getting Book 2 right.
So if you are waiting on the next installment of this story, thank you for your patience as I work through it with you.
I am not going to rush the book to meet a date I set before knowing how much work would be needed to make this book the best it can possibly be.
But I promise you, I want to give Heir of Dawn & Shadow the time it needs to be everything we hope, expect, and dream it can be.
At the same time, I am diving into something brand new to me.
In January, I will be starting grad school in earnest and moving forward with another step toward becoming a school librarian.
Two dreams, one very busy calendar, and somehow I am going to find a way to make it all work.
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