Maintenance, Inspiration And Thinking Time

Today I was busy, moving this blog from the root directory to the subdirectory /blog. In the same turn, I wanted to update the blog platform from a prerelease version to the latest stable version. Both didn't seem to be possible with my old provider, so I changed to the cloud provider DigitalOcean.
It is a bit more pricy, but I think it's worth it in the long run. I have now more control over what runs on this domain.

This wasn't the only thing I did since my last post. Most importantly I read the very good book “Let's Get Digital How To Self-Publish, And Why You Should” by David Gaughran (Affiliate Link). It was great source for knowledge, inpiration and motivation.

Apart from that I went to the DNX Global conference in Lisbon last weekend. I am a location-independent self-employed developer already, but I would not consider myself a digital nomad. Most of the year I spend in Berlin, at least as long as it is not too cold and dark.
Still a digital nomads workshop about living in the flow was very inspiring. It helped me to understand, how important it is to me to channel my creativity and get it published.

I finished working through the first draft of the manuscript even before I went to Lisbon. So I decided to leave my notebook at home and use the time to step back from day to day work. After I returned I was refreshed and immediately wanted to continue the work on the story. I now understand, that I will have to complete the first draft myself and make a whole story of it. My co-writer will then help me on improving the characters and some dialog I struggle with. And then I will find an editor, who should be able to tell us how to further improve the whole story.
But first things first. We will see, if my original plan to publish a book this year will hold up. I am still confident that I can make it. If you know an editor, that is interested in science fiction, leave a comment or let me know on Twitter.

In the meantime I streamlined my day. I wake up at 6:30 AM to meditate and do yoga. Then I wil use the pomodoro writing technique, to write at least two blocks of each 25 minutes. If I do this every day, I should be able to complete the manuscript, before I leave Europe for a week in Barcelona and two weeks in the USA.

My concept artist finished the concept of one of my main characters: the first male concept. Well, she added a mechnical hand, much like the one of Anakin Skywalker. I wasn't shure I wanted to work with it. My story is a very much different setting, than Star Wars. Of course it will be heaviliy influenced by it. Everyone knows, I am a huge Star Wars fan since I was twelve. But it shouldn't become a copy. I consider it unique and plan it to stay unique.

So I asked Julianne for two days of thinking time, before I would decide. I spent that weekend in Tyrol with my sister and brother in law. Unfortunately it was raining the whole weekend and we couldn't go biking as planned. But I used the time cooking in the sauna to think about the mechanical arm. I finally came to the conclusion, that I want the character to have this special feature. You will find out later, why it will work. It is now part of the story. It certainly is something I wouldn't have dared to use, without an artist on my side. So I am very glad to work with people like her, that inspire the story and let it grow.

Feel free to subscribe to my new releases list. I will notify you, as soon as the story is published.