July 2025

First: The Theme

There is a cliche that it’s easy to keep doing things when circumstances are perfect, but hard when they’re not. Disruption of routine throws me off, especially as a guy who lives with ADHD and Bipolar disorder. June is the end and the start of a lot of things, end of the school year, start of my wife’s busiest traveling for work period, beginning of the summer, and the end of spring. This means there’s a lot of markers that take time away from things that I like or need to do, like training and getting my daily words in. Accordingly the theme for the month was Persistence.

This month I persisted at a lot of things, and I dropped a lot of balls. I have only taken three oaths in my life, or things that could be called oaths. One was to my wife when we got married, another was to my children when they were born, and the third one is private, known only to me and the relevant parties. Unfortunately none of those oaths were to my word-count, so I lagged behind a lot, but more on that later. Two days ago I stepped into the ring for the first time in three years and competed in open steel Longsword and Messer/Sword and Buckler at IFG’s Tournament of Roses down in Portland. The results were mixed, but frankly excellent for someone who’s been away from competition for so long, and when considering that due to all the other stuff happening in June, I was barely able to properly condition myself for it.

I ranked 12 out of 38 fighters coming out of the pools for Messer/Sword and Buckler, moved on to elims, and lost to someone very skilled in the first round of brackets. Not freaking bad for a guy away from competition for three years and without being able to really train for it.

Also this month was not without creative victories.

Second: The Work

June was actually a fairly productive month even if I didn’t meet all my goals. I logged 500 words a day most days on the first half and had some double or even triple-count days. I’m hoping this makes up for the days where I wasn’t able to put anything down because of obligations that ate up all my writing time. I’m currently working on Broken Vessels, Glassblade’s sequel, and the story is mutating and moving in directions that I didn’t expect. One character’s arc that was supposed to end by their 6th chapter is actually extending significantly longer due to my realizing that they hadn’t hit the relevant story beats in the time allowed them, and I hadn’t given them enough page-space to do the stuff they needed to do. A common maxim I hear when stuff like this happens is ‘well, cut down on the stuff you’ve assigned to them! Gotta keep that word-count low!’ But that’s neither appropriate nor possible here. Sometimes your story is too big, and sometimes it’s too small.

I promised more teasers for Glassblade coming up and here’s where I start delivering: I’ve commissioned art of the five principle POV’s, and I’ve seen art for the first of them. I haven’t decided if I’m gonna do a once a month reveal in the five months leading up to release or if I’m going to release them in the weeks leading up to the date, but y’all will be the first to know when I make that decision.

So the first major thing that’s been on my mind as I keep working on these books is that the first one takes place in 2013, which—as time passes—was kindof a different Tacoma than the Tacoma of today, and that’s had me going through my old photos (something I did today in prep for this newsletter). 2013 seems so long ago now, twelve years in fact, but the reason I chose that year (something like ten years after I’d first written the book) is because that’s the year my son was born and it’s the year that I came up with the idea. The characters had been in my head before that, but they weren’t placed into a story. One of the major themes in the book, in addition to the coming of age story of the younger characters, is the story of the adults, who have been responsible for the safety and teaching of these kids for so long, having to come to terms with their charges growing up. The book is about children growing up and simultaneously all the things adults do, foolish and sensible, to try and protect them from a thing they ultimately can’t.

Third: On Craft.

So. Persistence in working, huh? Fun word. As I said earlier, June was full of disruptions, and I was only able to really bang out words consistently for the first half. Between school graduations and club obligations and stuff I needed to do for friends and family, the second half of the month saw the count fall off, and even on the days where I did get it done, it was usually a minimum-only day. I had a minor panic attack when I realized Broken Vessels was going to be possibly significantly longer than Glassblade, because the original numbers I crunched in terms of word-count over time to keep my lead on the story before release begins for book one was calculated on book two being slightly longer than one, not possibly significantly longer, but then I remembered that ultimately there are no rules in this pursuit that dictate how long something must or must not be, and that the book will be as long as it will be.

I just need to remember that it’s perfectly fine for things to take longer than anticipated, and that what matters at the end of the day is that the finished work is what it needs to be. Consistency and persistence. Those are the watchwords, and I am getting things done, even if timetables are expanding and I’m having to re-run some numbers. The story is coming, and I know the road-map, diversions aside. Whatever. That’s what editing is for.

A few years ago, my wife got a piece of advice from an old friend that’s really been helping me this month. It roughly goes “just because you fall off in your habits doesn’t mean you’re starting back at square one when you start again.” In fitness and in writing and a whole bunch of other things there’s this notion that if you lose your habits or have a break in your work, you’re essentially starting over from the start the next time you pick it up again, and this is frankly a crock of shit. Getting back on the horse is still done with the knowledge and experience of riding that you had before you had to take time away. You still know your horse, and your horse knows you. Settling into a new rhythm might not be easy, but it’s not the same thing as being kicked all the back to the base of the ladder and having to start the climb from the beginning.

Persistence persistence persistence. Keep going. I believe in you.

Fourth: What I’m watching/Reading/Playing.

Ah, at some point I knew the month would REALLY catch up with me. Most of what I’m watching, reading, and playing is the same as last month—The Apothecary Diaries, Murderbot, Paladins Grace, Guards Guards! And Fire Emblem There Houses. A month of barely having time to consume any media will do that to you!

That said, I did start re-watching one of my favorite anime: Princess Tutu. I’ve been watching it with the kids in the evenings after my wife gets off work, and this has been one of those instances where you introduce your children to something from your teens and watching them fall in love with it as much as you were. If you haven’t seen it yet, Princess Tutu is a phenomenal show. It’s only two short seasons, and tells a completed story of heartbreak, courage, and the way we can become trapped both by the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, and the stories others are telling. All this through the lens of ballet. The show is soundtracked almost entirely by the music of famous ballet composers, and the story is intimate and epic at the same time. In fact it’s one of the first stories I saw that really drove home for me that the intimate IS epic. I really can’t overstate the influence this show had on my writing, and I could gush about it all day, but I genuinely don’t want to spoil you if you see it. Suffice to say you should go in cold and have zero assumptions about what you’re watching. Yes it’s that good. I will bang that drum until the end of time.

In Conclusion: or What’s Next? 

This month got away from me and I had to burn time getting myself back on the horse, but it also came with some victories, both physical and creative. A thing I’ve really been drilling down on, given the current climate of the world, is the stuff small and big that I’m actually able to do something about. Whether it’s cornering someone at a tournament, or teaching someone a skill that they didn’t have the day before, or getting together for a community thing to either give aid and comfort to at-risk people, or just support eachother in difficult times, these small things matter, and they aggregate to bigger things. And I think the way we write a little at a time, a step at a time, a word at a time, aggregates to big stories and those stories join with other stories and… I don’t know if they change the world actually, but they certainly don’t hurt it.

Stay healthy, stay friendly, stay curious.

-Joe