Today, I am powered by a Marceline’s Confectionery dark chocolate candy apple and LOKI Season 2 after our family trip to Disneyland and California Adventure.

Before I say anything else, let me say that LOKI S2 is off to stellar start. While 2022 was rocky for the MCU, with a lot of talk about superhero fatigue and whether or not the next few phases have anything left to offer audiences, if you overlook ALL of that, then I think you get a strong 2023. QUANTUMANIA was almost good, and from what I heard GotG Vol. 3 was excellent (still haven’t seen it because we’re just getting a handle on their new bedtime routine).

But man, LOKI. So good.

So. Disneyland.

I won’t go too deep into the details, because even though it was only a two-day trip, there was way too much to recount. Instead, I’ll say the plan remains the same: become a published author who makes enough that a trip to Disneyland with the family won’t feel like I’m breaking our bank.

“But, Robert, you already went to Disneyland?” Yeah, and the boys are only going to get bigger and need more food and need more clothes and—You get the idea.

To me, being a published author isn’t superstar success. It’s being able to support my family financially. It’s being able to have options. It’s being able to feel like I’m not a burden on anyone as I try to pursue this dream. This comes with the self-inflicted idea that being a stay-at-home dad has no value, which if you’re my wife reading this, means you’re about to come slap me in the back of the head and tell me of course what i’m doing matters.

I’ve come to the realization I don’t value myself enough as a stay-at-home dad, and I think it’s because I know that taking care of kids comes intrinsically to me, to my very nature. I was, after all, called to be a teacher, and if going back to the classroom made so little difference financially to our lives I think I would have already chickened out and went back. But it’s braver to stay. Our move this past summer showed me I have little choice. I have to take care of the kids. I have to prepare them for preschool. I have to care for this house. To make life better for my wife. To keep the boys happy. To keep making new stories.

The edge of Mt. Doom, with a ring in my hand, and all I have to do is hit ‘Submit.’

PROJECT UPDATE:

GREY – querying. Reworked the pitch into a quick Seinfeld “Set-Up/Payoff” format, so I’m going to change the pitch then look at Chapter 1 again (like the man said, “communicate with your work”) then try to find another agent for it this week.

NESS – querying. Nothing new to report. The full manuscript request I got over a month ago is still being looked at, so we keep pitching.

BIANCA – after attempting a 2nd draft outline rewrite a la Matt Bell’s suggestion, I discovered unless I go into a project with that plan, it’s not for me. Moving on to 3rd draft fixes after I did the 2nd draft red pen edits. Starting that today. Hoping to get 5 pages done.

Have some other story ideas bouncing around and set aside some new notebooks to begin expanding on them. If GREY doesn’t land an agent after another 10 or so pitches, then it might be time to shelve it and move on to the next book. I’ve seen some published authors say they reconsidered their querying process if their manuscript hit about 40 or 50 rejections. GREY is close to 30, so we’re getting there.

Thanks for reading,

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