Weekly Writing Intentions: March 25, 2023

Daily Diary, Day 935:

After sending off my manuscript Wednesday to beta readers, I have been taking things slowly, because I can tell I’m tired, and also still fighting some infections. I have made some progress on the long to-do list of things that are part of the business-side of writing.

I did read a new Diving Universe novel by Kris Rusch (early release because I supported a kickstarter campaign.) No walks because of antibiotics I’ve been on, although I hope to start walking again on Monday.

So, my general intentions for the coming week are to continue to try to take it easier, start walking, get through the immediate business to-do list.

However, today I started to consider whether or not I can use the next month and a half before publication of Tides of Acerba to write a short story (maybe about 5000 words) in the Victorian San Francisco series. I wouldn’t want to take any longer than that because as soon as Tides is published, I want to start working on the last book (book 5) in the Caelestis series before all the details of that world have started to slip away.

The tentative title of the short story is, Dandy and the Dognappers, and this would be my third short featuring Dandy, the Boston Terrier who lives in the O'Farrell Street boarding house.

I'm seriously contemplating putting up each scenes from the draft as I go along on substack, sort of like a serial. Then once the draft is completed, I will do the usual editing, getting beta readers, and publishing as an ebook.

I would do this for a couple of reasons. First, I am curious about whether making the draft of this kind of short public as I write it motivates me, or is too much pressure. Second, I’m also curious how many of you would find it fun to see a draft as it develops.

So, this week, the goal is to do the historical research on this topic. I have already discovered that the actual name dognapper doesn’t show up in print until late 1920s, but the crime of stealing dogs and asking for ransom to return them, did occur in the 19th century.

My second writing goal is to work out a scene-by-scene outline of the story.

Here is a photo of a random Boston Terrier running, because I always enjoy an excuse to post a Boston Terrier.