39 and a week. 39 and a week and happily married. 39 and a week and happily married with four kids. 39 and a week and happily married with four kids while also being signed to a literary agency.

Seems like a good starting point.

A pair of twin boys walking around Disneyland in Sora and Roxas cosplay from Kingdom Hearts.

Summer went a lot faster than I would have preferred.

The fam and I spent the summer playing through Kingdom Hearts II, the boys’ first time. To say it had a profound impact on them would be putting it mildly. While they loved OG Kingdom Hearts last summer, and Kingdom Hearts: Re: Chain of Memories to a slightly lesser extent, this was the game, and the moment, that cemented it for them.

This was no longer a game.

It’s a part of them. Like all good stories.

Our younger son has a Kairi costume, also from Kingdom Hearts, but didn’t want to wear it the day we were taking pictures.

Also picked up this monstrosity. Not sure what to do with it, but I’m a sucker for good notebooks, and an even bigger sucker for notebooks that look like they belong to a thing I already love.

The cover to a notebook like Pixar's UP entitled "My Adventure Book."
The inside to a notebook like Pixar's UP entitled "My Adventure Book."

School has been starting, which means my part-time work at the preschool is starting. My life is about to be more complicated, so April and I finally had our sit-down meeting to discuss finances, scheduling, and how to make this New Normal the, in fact, New Normal. See, writing before had to be done out of the way of her schedule (early mornings, family trips, hiring help when we could), because he career is what’s keeping our family going.

But now the stakes got bigger.

We’re signed, meaning time HAS to be made. We figured out the best times and days of the week for me to get my writing done. If you’re married, or in a long-term relationship, you have to set these boundaries up for work time. It can save you some hard discussions much later on down the road.

We’ll see how it goes and if we have to adjust, we will.

PROJECT UPDATE:

NESS – The last three weeks of July consisted mostly of travel. First, to NYC to see my sister-in-law in her last Broadway performance of Hadestown, then to California for Disneyland and beach. Not as much downtime for writing as I hoped, but I was also prepared. I had a meeting with my agent right before the NY trip, and we got to talking about what changes needed to happen in this next round of edits.

Before I have to answer this more, here’s the goal: October.

Have the book polished enough to go on submission (a topic worth it’s own post in the future) by then. Can I do it? We’ll see. The major Revise & Resubmit took about four months of work, minus all the New Baby Stuff. If I can focus this dedicated time towards it, starting from when my agent and I had our meeting, I can get it done before October.

Keep a notebook everywhere, and you’re golden.

CURRENTLY LISTENING: Dragon Ball Best 30th Anniversary CD

Picked this up at Kinokuniya in New York.

CURRENTLY READING: TROUBLESHOOT by Benji Bajorek and a slew of talented artists

Benji was a classmate of mine in the JINXWORLD classes, and has been making stellar comics for years. TROUBLESHOOT is a follow-up to his award-winning graphic novel, DEADSHEET, but this time he’s accompanied by guest artists bringing their own vibe to this dingy world of death and choice.

This is the start of the New Normal. Things are going to go like this for as long as they can. This is what I’ve been working towards. When that time comes, you need to take it. Here we go.

Thanks for reading,

I’m represented by Haley J. Casey at Creative Media Agency

BlueSky: @robacosta.bsky.social

Threads: @RobAcosta

Instagram: @robacosta

E-mail: robertmichaelacosta@gmail.com