Updates on Books, Projects, and Progress

Photo by Minh Pham on Unsplash

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of “The Extroverted Writer” I’ve been trying to get more consistent with my writing process, and publishing posts, as well as just trying to get more shit done on a regular basis. Hence, this post, which is an update to a lot of things about what I’ve been trying to do. Not only is this an update post, I want to share with you what I’ve been doing for the last three weeks. In the last three weeks, I’ve gotten more shit accomplished than I have in the last two months, I feel like.

It’s a strange fucking feeling, to say the least.

Let’s start with the change in my schedule and my recent surge in productivity.

A recent surge in productivity

Kids will fuck your shit up. That’s not even an opinion; that’s a fact. This week my kid started kindergarten. My wife is going to be shifting her work schedule, and because of that, I will have to be getting my kid off to school. This means that I have to get my ass out of bed in order to get up and get her ready. Shit is early, and I really don’t want to do it. The joy of being a parent, though, is you don’t get the chance to say I don’t want to. So guess who’s getting up at 6 AM every day now?

Yeah, this motherfucker.

Now, initially I debated whether I wanted to spend my mornings before work, as is the case this morning as I write this, playing games or being productive. For the last few months, I hadn’t been productive. Okay, that’s a bit of a lie. I have written, and I have edited. But I haven’t done anything consistently or on a regular enough cadence to really catch any traction.

The last couple of weeks, I’ve gotten used to getting up earlier. It’s helped me realize I can get more done earlier in the day than I used to. This is the complexity of changing your schedule and growing old. I can’t explain why this works, but if you want a routine, have a fuckin kid. (I can’t condone this to get your life together, but then again, I don’t know that you came here for full-fledged life advice.)

In the last few weeks though, I’ve got up earlier, and at least spent some of my morning working on a project(s). The consistency of daily getting into it builds momentum, and that momentum carries. I always thought that was a weird thought process, but it turns out it works. Who the fuck knew?

I’ve tried to get things done and move the needle on a couple of projects. So, with that said, I will share some updates on those projects below. I also have some cool news about what I want to get done by the holiday. Let’s see if importing a deadline also allows me to grow? I don’t know about that, probably not, but maybe??

Update on “Pack Tactics” Editing

If you’ve followed along with this blog for longer than a week, you’ve likely seen me reference the title “Pack Tactics”. I’m not fully set on this being the name of the book, but I haven’t decided it won’t be. (If you’re reading this early in the morning and your brain didn’t catch that entire sentence, don’t worry; I didn’t either. I wrote it so you’re safe.)

Either way, I crossed into Chapter 24 today, which puts me about halfway through the second round of edits for the book. If I keep plugging away at it, I would like to think that I might get this round of edits done close to the middle, maybe third week of September. If I can pull that off, I think I can narrow down the release window for the book. Either way, right now I’m targeting a Q1 release in 2026.

It’s been a ride working my way through the book. I’ve learned a lot about my process. In terms of my writing, I’m hoping that I can apply all of this to the next novel. Which leads me to the next special project for Substack here.

Update on Journal Post for Substack

I’ve been sitting with some ideas for a while. I want to write more words, tell more stories, and flesh out the world that I’m playing in. Then I met a man named J. Michael Thomas. If you haven’t had the chance to check out his work, it’s located here.

Now that you’re back, his “Dystopian Journal Entries” really kicked off a thought in my brain. I saw this release strategy as one similar to what I did for “Underside” while also expanding my universe. I started kicking around a few ideas, and I came up with a few ideas about how I could expand the universe. I want to start with more regular weekly releases that lead to bigger items. The first of these ideas will be a journal. This journal will focus on a guard in a place called Whisperwind. If you don’t know what that is, I’d recommend you read “Underside” it’s a location; that’s all I’ll say.

I have gotten a few of the entries done so far. I hope to be ready to launch those in the next few weeks. I’ve been spending a couple of days every week writing on this project. Occasionally I’ll to Lies We Tell Ourselves. I will have some updates on that book in a couple of weeks as well.

I appreciate ya’ll and look forward to what comes over the next couple of weeks.

K.L. Robinson