Kenn Ghannon: Blog

What can I say about Runesward: Tome 2, chapter 8*? Nothing good, unfortunately. I had quite a build-up to it in chapters 6 and 7 and I'm having difficulties filling the emotional void with Chapter 8. No spoilers but - I feel as if I need something special here, something memorable and I can't seem to do it justice. I've written the opening 4 times now and I'm either unimpressed or just not happy with any of it. It's driven me to eat, for Deia's sake! (See what I did there?)

Some of you might not know, but as my life progressed, so did my stomach. It got to the point I was 90 pounds overweight. No health concerns, thankfully, my heart and blood pressure and sugar stayed good...but I was obese. I saw a picture of myself last summer and...it was not pleasant. You never truly see yourself until you see a surprise picture someone else took that you didn't know they took.

Now, I've been happy to say I was 'overweight' for the past decade or more. After seeing that picture, though, something had to give. That wasn't me. That was some fat dude masquerading as me.

I have an older cousin (4 years older) who was overweight as well - though nowhere near in my league. When I saw him over the summer, he was svelte. He'd dropped a ton of weight and was looking muscular. I asked him his secret...

...and thus, I started on the Keto lifestyle. It is NOT for everyone. Basically, you have to cut most everything that tastes good out of your life - except meat. The one saving grace to this diet is you can eat all the meat you want. All the butter, too. All the eggs (though I can't stand eggs, really). No breads. No pasta. Limited vegetables. No sugar (though, Monkfruit sweetener is your best pal here).

I committed to it in August. I lost 75 pounds by mid-December. I was off the diet for about 2 months and hovered consistently at a loss of 60-65 pounds (meaning I gained 10-15 back and kept it there). I started back on it after my work trip - but I fell off the wagon today, mostly because of this stupid chapter. I just can't crack it.

Anyway, just thought I'd update everyone.

*Chapter 8 in Tome 2 is, over-all, Chapter 37.

My work trip is concluded! As you can tell, I survived. It isn't that I don't like flying, it's how little control I have while in the air. Even when I'm a passenger in an automobile, I have a bit of anxiety. I know flying is statistically safer than driving - and I'm pretty sure that is a GREAT comfort to the people who die when a plane crashes. (Yes, I'm probably being a bit silly).

I'm working on 'Runesward - Tome 2: Callisto'. I didn't get as much time as I'd have liked during my trip but I did get some time. I've sent a few chapters off to my editors. One of them have shown I need to re-read the rules of ellipses. Evidently, you're supposed to have spaces surrounding the ellipses when they're used in the middle of a sentence and before the ellipses when you're ending the sentence with one. The grammar nazis are going to hate me - because I just used Word's 'Replace' functionality to replace every instance of '...' with ' ... ' - beginning, middle and ending - and re-posted the whole of 'Tome 1'. Not my finest hour but ... it's done and I'm not going back to re-correct everything. Word counted and I've used ellipses 525 times ... I'd like to spend my time writing in Tome 2 today. I may go back and fix it later, though.

Tome 2 is a little different than anything else I've ever attempted in that I've actually started a number of chapters AT THE SAME TIME. Instead of a partially finished story, I now have partially finished chapters. Sigh.

Runesward - Tome 1: Hasp is complete and in the books. It was a fun ride and I appreciate all of the time everyone took to write to me and comment on the story. Criticism and praise, I'm thankful for it all.

I'm working on Tome 2 - which is a much larger undertaking. New characters have to be introduced which means a bit more world building - and finding each character's particular voice. I've got to finish off some plotlines and start others. I think there's still plenty of meat on the bone.

I've marked Tome 1 as 'ended'; I don't know if that applies to 'Runesward' or just 'Tome 1' but I guess we'll see. Either way, it's ended until I can finish Tome 2. Wish me luck.

Runesward is entering the closing chapters of 'Tome 1: Hasp'. Although I didn't plan it this way, it's actually closing at the perfect time. Next week (Feb 10 through 17th), I'll be on the road for work so I wouldn't have been able to post anything anyway (or, at least, not as easily as I can from home).

This also means that my time this week will be limited as I try to clean things up for my week away. Being on the road plays havoc with work because I won't have the normal time to do my job. This means, in effect, that when I return on the 18th, I'll end up working twice as much just to catch up. (I do have teammates who will step in as necessary - but they're extremely busy, too, so inevitably we end up doing twice as much work when we return - it's not just me).

To that effect, I've spent today pre-processing the final 4 chapters for 'Runesward - Tome 1: Hasp' and have posted them to release on the normal schedule - one chapter each day. I actually agonized over this and considered just releasing them all on Monday - but the extra week or two will give me more time to work on 'Runesward - Tome 2: Callisto'. Unless I somehow manage to get A LOT done during my time on the road, it still won't be ready to post when I get back, but this is one less week of everyone not having something new from me in their browser (vanity, thy name is Kenn Ghannon).

So, if you e-mail me or comment on the story and I don't immediately respond, it is definitely NOT because I'm ignoring anyone. I'm just running far behind. As one of my favorite quotes says: 'I have been put on this earth to complete a specific number of things. Right now, I'm so far behind I will never die.' If only this were so (and, yes, I'm probably mis-quoting it).

The best laid plans of mice and men...

Generally speaking, I go through the following day's post the evening before. If I get through it, I post it to be 'released' at 0800 the following morning. If I don't, I tend to be up very early in the morning and post it as soon as I complete it. Everything usually posts by 1000 - 1100 at the latest.

Of course, Real Life™ happens (I'm copyrighting that - no T-shirts for you!). Yesterday evening was fraught full of family goodness and this morning was very eventful at work. Needless to say, I have not prepped the chapter yet.

I'll upload it as soon as I can; by this evening for certain.