Good day Readers,
I’ve two glimpses into the future to share with you today:
UMBRA
A Novella
Dun’s new employer wants him dead. The feeling is mutual.
His Name and his Voice lost to the last war, all that remains for Dun is the job. When the job goes sideways, his team of criminal misfits must keep their wits about them to survive the deadliest con of their lives.
Sir Janus wants nothing more from his visit to Strata than the thrill of Arena Combat. But the political obligations he disdains pose a greater risk than any sword or spell, as forces beyond his considerable power stir in the tiered city.
Whispers of war underpin polite laughter in sunlit salons. Tides of revolution swell through Foundation among the city’s downtrodden. And the elite forge onward with their machinations, ignorant of a long-forgotten truth:
For a man who has lost everything, all that’s left is revenge.
My second novella, Umbra, is on its way toward publication: one last pass of editing, and it will be ready to go. At 21k words, Umbra is my largest finished piece to date. I’ve considered numerous times if I should revisit it and fill it out into a full novel… but I just like it as it is. And while I’ve certainly written my fair share of purple prose over the years, I am no fan of pointless, excess fluff in a story.
Like I did with The Carver’s Gift, I plan to serialize the first 1/2 of Umbra (give or take) in four parts, landing each Friday over the course of November – which brings me to my next item of business:
NaNoWriMo 2023
November is nearly upon us, and it’s been a long while since I participated in a NaNoWriMo challenge – *checks notes* more than a DECADE!? Holy crap, how the time flies. Feels like time to give it another go!
I’ve never been one to garner much enjoyment or creativity from a strict set of rules. For some, the draw of NaNoWriMo is navigating the challenges imposed by the restrictions (not a single word of prose allowed to be written before 11/1; novel must be minimum 50k words and have an ending). For me, the draw is the simple kick in the pants to just write, write damn you, keep writing don’t you dare think about stopping!
The project I have planned for this year is one I’ve had kicking around in my head the past few years now. I already have somewhere around 10-15k words in early chapters and scene blurbs written down, so according to the NaNo website, I’ve technically failed before the starting gun has even been fired. Luckily for me, I’m an independent adult human, and I am perfectly capable of setting my own victory conditions, thank you very much.
So my moonshot goal is of course to complete the first draft by the end of the month, which I’m guessing will probably cap out at around 60-70k words in total; however, with a 5-month-old baby in the house, I am not so naive or selfish to think that I will be able to prioritize this over everything else in life (when baby demands food or snuggles, you give that baby what it wants, damn it). Thus, my fallback goal is to simply buckle down and average 1000 words a day, adding 30k total to the draft by the end of the project. If I can land that this year around the rest of my responsibilities, I’ll consider it a smashing success.
Anyone else planning to run in the marathon of madness alongside me this year? Whether by-the-book, or with your own set of personalized goals and guidelines?
Wish me luck, I’ll see you on the other side!
The Literary Diversions of K.T. Lazarus 
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