Well who would believe it. Seems like 2017 had only just started and suddenly we’ve crossed over the halfway mark. As we cross over from June into July, it’s that time again to look back over the previous six months and think about what sort of progress has been made. Has it been a productive time? Am I any closer to achieving my yearly goals?

So here we go with a mid-year status update for 2017.

1. A new novel – Through the Flame. Goal officially achieved. Through the Flame was released in February to a massive fanfare. All right, so maybe the fanfare wasn’t quite so massive, but given I began working on this story back in 2008, finally getting it out and into the world feels like a pretty substantial achievement. It’s a kind of strange (hopefully not too strange) YA/MG fantasy/comedy/satire that will hopefully be a fun read.

2. A new picture book – Bella and the Blue Genie. Getting close with this one. It hasn’t quite taken nine years but it still feels like a bit of a saga. But the artist is now making good progress and the draft illustrations look really great. If everything goes to plan, we’re looking at a release date of August, and that will be another goal achieved.

3. Another picture book to follow Bella and the Blue Genie. Not sure where we’re at with this. There are plenty of candidate manuscripts but haven’t had a chance to plan anything moving forward. At this point, I’d say it’s unlikely I’ll be able to get another picture book out by the end of the year, so hopefully some time in the first six months of 2018.

4. At least two more potential picture book manuscripts. This one is going well. I’ve actually just completed a first draft for a new picture book and have made progress on a second one. The second one even rhymes. So I’m pretty happy that I’ll achieve this goal. May even surpass it.

5. A new novel. I didn’t expect to be able to complete a first draft but I did hope to make significant progress. The good news is that this is also moving forward. I’m now working on chapter 10 and have written almost 30K words of my comedy/fantasy/romance/satire/adventure. It’s a first draft so it’s pretty messy but it feels good to be able to get the ideas out of my head and onto the page. Judging by current progress, it’s still not likely that I’ll get this draft completed but should be well over halfway by the end of the year.

6. Just generally be less stressed and more happy. This one I’m not so sure of. Still dealing with work issues – will post more on that shortly. Mostly just doing my best to get through one day at a time.

So that’s the summary at the halfway mark for 2017. Generally, making good progress on the goals. Hopefully some of the other aspects will begin to fall into place.

Hope your year is also going well.