What to do?

How I fill my time when waiting for notes.

I currently find myself in the “waiting for notes” stage of the book-making process. This is not unusual. I’ve been here before, but this time it’s for not one but two books.

Usually, when working on two books simultaneously, my goal is to work on them in stages and jump back and forth so that when I finish writing the script for one book, I jump to writing the script for the other book while I wait for notes on the first.

This works really well, until the notes on the first script don’t come, and it’s been over a month. This means I can’t jump back to working on that project. And I just turned in the second book’s script yesterday, so it’s too soon to expect notes back on that one. However, I do have a meeting next week with my editor to talk about that script. If all goes well, fingers crossed, I’ll be able to start roughing out the pages.

This leaves me with a bit of free time to:

• Read a book. I’ve been reading mysteries lately because one of the book projects I’m working on is a mystery. I’m currently reading two books, and they both have pretty great covers:

  1. Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann. A book about a flock of sheep who have to solve the murder of their shepherd. I love animal books, so this one is right up my alley. And in case you’re wondering, it’s a novel for adults, not for kids.

     

  2. The Queen of Poisons by Robert Thorogood. This is the third book in the Marlow Murder Club Mystery series. I haven’t read the first two yet, but this was the only one they had at the bookstore, plus I watched the TV version of the first book, which I mention a little later in this post. I loved the Thursday Murder Club books, and I’m hoping this series is also good. So far, I’m liking it too.

     

• Make a how-to draw promo for next week’s release of my new book, Box Tales: Grow, Strawberries, Grow! I’ve already made one of these where I show how I draw Beatrix, but I thought I should also make one for Box.

  

• RUN! I’m so happy to be running again. I’ve been plagued with a muscle issue in my left leg, which has prevented me from being able to run for the last year. I finally, after trying everything on my own to remedy it, went to see the doctor and got a prescription for physical therapy. And after 14 visits of muscle strengthening and some muscle scraping, I’m able to run again without walking like a pirate afterwards. I’m in the process now of building my endurance back up and slowly increasing the distances I run (currently 4 to 6 miles with some walking breaks).

• Read a ‘How to Write’ book because I’m always trying to find ways to improve my writing. I picked up a new book today at the bookstore called “The Happy Writer” by Marissa Meyer. It looks like it might have some good tips and advice in it, but I haven’t read it yet, so the verdict is still out.

  

• Watch some TV. I’ve been watching the Marlo Murder Club and Miss Scarlet on PBS. Both mysteries because, again, I’m currently working on my own mystery book. I’ve finished the first two seasons of the Marlo Murder Club, which I enjoyed, and I’m currently at the start of the second season of Miss Scarlet.

• Work on a new book idea. I’m reluctant to do this because I already have two graphic novels I’m working on, and even if I were to flesh out one of my other book ideas, I wouldn’t be able to do anything with it until I finish my current projects.

• Clean the garage. This is not something I want to do, but it is something I need to do, definitely, at the bottom of my to-do list.

What kind of things do you like to do while waiting for notes? Are you reading any good books? Leave your answers in the comments.

Thanks for reading!

-James