…I finished a book project, not only On Time, but Before the Deadline. I began the revision of The Roman Villa on the 20th of November and finished it on the 20th of February, leaving three weeks in the Project Plan for further tweaking and proof reading. Furthermore, it allows me to start Book III of the series—The Sacred Tor—earlier than I had planned, which, I hasten to add, does not mean I will finish it early. Or even on time.

For you non-writers, pulling a book together in three months is not really the herculean task it sounds like. And for you actual writers, yeah, three months, I’m a slacker, okay?

The Roman Villa—the second Magic Cloak book for my G-boys—was written in 2014. (For those of you unfamiliar with the series, Mitch and Charlie—two boys from Wynantskill, NY—have a Magic Cloak that takes them back in time, where they have various adventures with historical figures, as you do.) I wrote a full novel but, as they were only 3 and 4 at the time, it was condensed into a picture book for them, and I tucked the 200-page manuscript away until I figured out what to do with it. I didn’t expect it to take eight years, but at least I can now be satisfied, knowing I didn’t waste my time. (Unless, of course, you non-writers consider the act of writing itself to be a waste of time. And you won’t find me disagreeing with you.)

Anyway, The Roman Villa is now in its final form:

If you are tempted to buy it (no pressure, really) and you have not yet bought The Magic Cloak—Book I of the Talisman Series—I advise you to do so because I’ll get more royalties…I mean, you’ll be better grounded in the story arc.

Furthermore, if you do buy the books, and you come across an error, and you are tempted to contact me with a Grammar-Nazi email along the lines of, “FFS can’t you SPELL?!?!? It’s “we’re,” not “were,” Page 87, line 14…” all I can say is, PLEASE DO!!!

Despite my best efforts, errors do slip through (and I have come across errors while reading books by famous authors, so I’m in good company) and the beauty of eBooks and POD publishing is that the text can be tweaked even after the book is published. So, if you find an error, and let me know about it, I’ll fix it and send you an updated copy of the book.

And so, on to Book III, which I am discovering, to my dismay, isn’t so much a manuscript as it is a jumble of half-finished scenes, snatches of dialog, and notes to myself saying things like, “maybe this scene should come earlier,” or, “if you put this here, you’ll need to foreshadow it in chapter 4,” or, “Wow! Does this win the award for crappiest sentence ever?”

I have, as with the other books, allotted myself 104 days to turn that steaming pile of half-finished sentences into a readable novel.

My wife is already preparing for the tsunami of angst destine to wash over her in the coming months.