7-40 Challenge | 6-22-2026 I cut almost half of my first novel in editing. Scenes I loved. Lines I was proud of. Whole subplots I'd spent weeks building. Every cut made the book better. This round, I did the same thing to my year. I started 2026 with a list of everything I wanted to … Continue reading Editing Life
Category: Books & Writing
The Short Letter
7-40 Challenge | Round 4, Day 30 There's a quote attributed to Blaise Pascal: "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time." Most people read that as a joke about editing. It's not. It's one of the truest things ever said about how real clarity works. The simple version … Continue reading The Short Letter
Undiscovered Territory
7-40 Challenge | Round 4, Day 29 I've been calling promoting my creative work a foreign country. A place I don't speak the language, don't know the customs, don't belong. I've been treating it like something that requires a translator or a guide just to survive. That's the wrong metaphor. And the wrong metaphor was … Continue reading Undiscovered Territory
Away
7-40 Challenge | Round 4, Day 22 The Light Bearer went up on KDP today. That's two novels published in 2026. The first one took five months from manuscript to launch. This one took longer than I wanted — I missed my own deadline, pushed through more revisions than I planned for, and learned that … Continue reading Away
Start Writing Something Different
7-40 Challenge | Round 4, Day 21 Years ago, I wrote a blog post about the difference between facts and story. I used an example of two people answering the same question — "how was your day?" One gave a list: did some spreadsheets, took some calls, met a new coworker, came home. The other … Continue reading Start Writing Something Different
