Projects for July

I hope you had a good weekend! One of the things I was able to do over the long weekend was finish the first draft of Chaos Season. It's about 74,000 words, a bit short for fantasy perhaps, but there are two more books planned in this series. I plan to take a break from Chaos Season until late August or September before revising it.

Here are some of the other things I want to work on in the meantime:

Writing-- I've been stuck on the next story in the Catalyst Chronicles for a while. Part of the problem was researching the culture of the main character (she's half-Navajo), and part of it was trying to force the plot into a direction that wasn't working for the story I really wanted to tell. I have part of the draft for this story, so let's see if I can pick up where I left off. This story might be a short novella, shorter even than Lyon's Legacy.  I was stuck on a title for a while, but I finally decided to use "The Unnumbered World." Navajo beliefs about the origin of their people state that they traveled here from other mythological worlds; I can't remember if this world is the fourth or fifth. The Unnumbered World is not part of their beliefs, but they still have to adapt to it.

I'll be continuing work on the Season Avatar series with Young Seasons, a short story collection about the four Season Avatars of this series before the events of Scattered Seasons. This will eventually be a permafree book to introduce readers to this series. I'm not sure yet if I will put it in Kindle Unlimited first or start with a wide release. I may also prepare outlines for the final two books in this series.

Jawa Costume--My husband and I are planning to join the 501st Legion, a Star Wars charity costuming organization.  (Our son will also get an official costume so he can troop with us, but he's too young for this organization and will join the Galactic Academy instead.) Eugene will be an Imperial gunner; I want to be a Jawa. I have the material for the robe and hood and already dyed it the proper color; now I need to start cutting and sewing. I also ordered two bandoliers and should get them this week. Other required parts of the costume include a mask with glowing eyes, gloves, and boots. I have no skills with costuming, but fortunately the troopers I've met so far have been very friendly and helpful.

Alex--I want to help my son continue to work on reading and writing throughout the summer. He's very interested in dinosaurs right now, so we might practice writing a "scientific report" on them.

Other--The garden out back has been taken over by weeds, and there's no sign of peas or beans developing yet. (I hope something fertilizes the flowers!) The squash plants were starting to turn yellow, so they might need more water. I hope we can still save them.

The Star Wars-themed playroom is just about done; all we need to do is hang posters. I still have to do some of the purging I planned to do last month. Time flies when you're trying to make the most of your summer, I guess.

Do you have any summer projects, or are you just taking it easy? Let me know in the comments.