Going off the grid for the rest of the month

Starting Monday of next week, I'll likely not be posting anything to my blog until the end of the month.

There are two main reasons for that.

The first, and most important, is that I just had a rather large project land in my lap. Between that and my other clients lined up, I've got a few thousand dollar's worth of projects for the rest of November, and I'm ramping up from my normal 4-5 hour days to 9-10 hour days. Normally I wouldn't do that, but the offer was good enough that I'm willing to put in some extra time for a few weeks. Secondly...I'm swamped with language lessons, which are ongoing until February. At which point I'm taking the second round of classes for total fluency in Bulgarian, with a goal of being fluent by June (which is when the second class is finished with). Concurrent with that is the continued growth of Complete Writing Solutions as I continue fleshing it out and adding links, content, and otherwise.

The trade-off is that I'm taking the entire month of December off, outside of a few articles I have scheduled for TravBuddy. December will be focused entirely on getting my e-book polished and ready for publication. The majority of the content is already written, it simply needs to be polished up and edited...at which point I have to make a choice to either find a publisher and an agent or do it myself via POD. Still undecided on this point.

December will also be spent looking at ways to monetize the new website. Adds, networking with other writing sites and otherwise, I am looking at making the website a major source of income for 2010. It's a big step, and it requires a lot of work, but I enjoy it.

Fiction is almost entirely on hold at the moment, at least in terms of writing anything new. I have 3 short stories in circulation looking for a home. I have a fourth that needs a re-worked ending and it could also be sent out into circulation. Book work....well, as much as I want to work on it, it's completely on hold. I'm 80k words in, and have been since June.

While I'm torn between my real passion--which is fantasy and science fiction--and making money...I can't deny that I'm having an absolute blast doing freelance work. I'm getting to write in two of my favorite niches...travel and video games. I'm also doing a lot of "generic" content work for Pure Content...that is, anything they give to me. A big project I just wrapped up for them last month was for a French poker website that required me to write about poker for nearly a month. It was an absolute blast. I've also written about things like UK universities, towns in the UK, space travel, the X-Files, Robin Hood, health and fitness, and a wide variety of topics that have required me to do a lot of research. I have learned a LOT of new information in 2009, so it's been a dual blessing to be getting a nice paycheck along with furthering my knowledge.

I'm not sure where I want to take this writing career. I started out wanting to pursue fantasy and science fiction primarily. And I still do. But the pull of the freelance market, especially the digital medium where you can work for clients all over the world on all sorts of projects, allows me a great avenue for finding inspiration, and I'm gaining all sorts of new information on a wide variety of topics. The pay isn't too shabby, and I have to admit I'm looking forward to trying to make this website + e-book really pay off. I've been doing a lot of research in the past few weeks and as long as I market things properly it should work out splendidly. We'll have to wait and see. But I really don't know WHERE I want to take it. Do I want to keep writing travel? I've debated doing a Bulgarian-specific website focusing on cultural aspects and things like wine and cuisine, specifically targeting the rest of the EU as Bulgaria moves deeper into the folds and people want to know more about their newest neighbour. The country is fast turning into a major tourist destination because of the low costs, and access to several of the most beautiful mountain ranges in this part of Europe, not to mention the Black Sea. And the wine...well, I've talked about the wine before. Bulgaria is absolutely undiscovered wine country, and I full expect to see things explode in the next dozen years or so once the rest of the world discovers it. Kind of like South Africa and Australia have done in the past 10 years or so.

Who knows? Lots of ideas, lots of passions, and as long as they are making money I'll keep pushing ideas along to see how they work out. I'd love to focus entirely on fiction but at the same time...I'm having fun doing what I do, and I'm making good money and getting to spend a lot of time traveling. Who says I have to write novels right now? :)

Yap with you all later!