Sunday morning I spot what I think is a rabbit.  It’s still dark enough out that he’s more of a flash of brown and white.  But he moves like a rabbit and not a squirrel and doesn’t have the pudgy shape of a raccoon.

I walk around the neighborhood, checking out the Halloween decorations.  Not much up yet.  Most are the obligatory cobwebs.  But I spot a pretty cool one: three sheet cloth witches gathered around a pile of pumpkins.

Then an hour on cycling Chapter 11-15.  I woke up with a fix I didn’t realize I needed for one of the later chapters.  I’d overthought the setting, so I simplified it.

After that, I spend 2 hours on marketing, including a blog post, preloading Twitter, and blog posts.  I’ll be running on a group on easter eggs in the book, so if you want a peek at that, sign up for the newsletter (and get a free Dice Ford, Superhero short story).

Then back to the chapters, now onto read aloud to catch typos.  And there are a lot.  I do this for an hour. A short break and I make some gluten-free skillet brownies.  While I wait, back to read aloud.  It’s so tedious I think once I’m finished, I’ll do the chapters in batches of two.

Then Word froze up and I took that as a sign.  These chapters are done!

I’m having to think like a project manager for all of this.  I’ve been exposed to the concept in all of my jobs since I got out of the Army.  I tend to want to try to do everything, especially with being taught in the Army to “Accomplish the mission.”

Sometimes you gotta say “Stop.”

Since COVID-19, everyone has been taking on more (20% more), and that’s on top of this craziness that time management promises—that you can do it all. The problem is that time is finite, and very deceptive.  That’s what gets writers like the one I mentioned the other day into trouble.  The time is deceptively available, and then it turns into last minute.

So project management comes in.

What’s the main task I have to get done?  Get Superhero Portal done for a January 2022 release—and stick to that deadline.  And market the book with newsletter building promotions.