Hello, Readers! Clevenger here.

So, look at where we’ve wandered this week… we ain’t even supposed to be here today.

Well, if we’re here, then let’s get some things squared up. As we said, this blog segment is to learn more about us, so let me shed some more insight on the relationship between Graham and myself. I got some “real talk” to dish out. Much of which Graham doesn’t know I’m about to say (turnabout is fair play). We shall start with what got us here this week. Distractions.

I’ve known Graham for over two decades, and he’s always been easily distracted. The scope of his distractions and how he approaches them are in my mind linked with his “Southern Hospitality” need to be a people pleaser. He picks up games and hobbies that either myself or another friend enjoys so that he can spend time with us. Sometimes they are things he likes, others… not so much. But he’ll play them even if he doesn’t like them because he “wants” to like what we like.

This compounds his actual interests. When he jumps on Minecraft, or surfs the Tumblr (and yes, please, PLEASE read that in a grandpa voice, because I don’t understand Tumblr AT ALL), he feels guilty because he’s only doing something HE enjoys and feels like it’s “wasting time.” What I try to remind him is that spending time to relax, or make yourself happy is necessary. Self care is not waste.

For the other distractions… aka School Work, and his side writing. Those are NOT distractions. Those are skill builders and necessary priorities.

You see, when we started the Stories of Sainan, Graham wasn’t in a great place. But now, as we’ve overcome many of the struggles he was having, he’s slowly growing back into form. And with that comes a self-pride that means he’s doing things to improve himself. Starting school, writing, and research are all activities that come with him regaining his mental health.

I am not without distractions myself. I have a full-time computer consulting job that keeps me busy. Combined with my duties at home as a husband and the father of a two-year-old boy, I am often short on writing time myself. Graham doesn’t begrudge those responsibilities any more than I begrudge his. I also watch a crap-ton of TV, play a few games, run a RPG on Tuesdays, play in an RPG on Sundays. So I also have hobbies that I exploit for relaxation. I just don’t have the “guilt.” I learned to burn it off.

I will teach Graham to as well… someday.

I have a small “side” project which is a writing exercise. It’s more about wordcraft than it is about story-telling. I cannot say much about it… for reasons. But I put anywhere between 500-1000 words in on it daily. Guilt free.

It’s not that I would not work on another project with storytelling. I just can’t. Until the full story of Sainan is out and in black and white, it would block my other paths. It’s not that I couldn’t abandon Sainan… it’s that Sainan won’t abandon me. It consumes my story-telling. I cannot even write an RPG story right now (I’m playing out of modules) because the story is all my brain allows me to think about. Scenes, re-writes, characters, visuals, all circle. Occasionally a nugget that doesn’t belong will surface, and it gets written in a “future” document for later examination.

So that addresses some of the open topics from Graham’s blog… now what do I talk about. Oh, yes. The state of the project.

Well, we have good news, and bad news.

The bad new is we have decided to push our debut back just a bit. We are expecting at least a six month delay. The good news is why.

We have decided to query.

Yes, we are actually going to take a swing at traditional publication and put ourselves out there. If we get a bite, then we will be beholden to the schedule of the agent, editor, and publishers we find ourselves working with. Once we know, you’ll know. If we go a few months and nothing seems to be happening, then we put ourselves back on the self-publish track and we target June 2023 as our debut date!

It’s exciting, it’s scary, and it’s a big step. Thank you all for your support.

Well, that should finish this week… now to plot my cast.

Be Kind,

-Clevenger