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Well, it's New Year's Eve and while I'd love to do a retrospective 'Year that Was...' I ain't gonna. At least, not yet. In the meantime, I'm all giddy about some writing stuff. First and foremost...

GOODHALO II - Is done! It's done, done, done! Well, at least the first draft anyway. It's length shattered any previous records held by any books that I've ever written. I'd originally thought: Aw, it'll be like 100,000 words. No sweat. That didn't happen. I bumped up my guesstimate to around 120,000 words. Nope. This baby clocks in at over 127,000 words. Yikes! It's like an epic! And while I'd love to say that that number will diminish with the 2nd and 3rd drafts, traditionally, that's not true with me. I tend to be an 'adder.' We'll see, I guess, next year when I work on the subsequent drafts. But, I'm really pleased with it. The story is complex, follows mulitple characters and brings some pretty cool plot twists (in my opinion) to the fold. I'm really excited to get it in fighting shape and begin work on the 3rd and final installment sometime next year.

Thomas, what're you nuts? You haven't even sold GOODHALO one yet. Heck, you don't even have an agent for it yet.

Maybe I'm a little crazy, but I decided long ago that I was gonna write the entire trilogy, book deal or not. If it sells or I get a kick-ass agent then all the better, but I'm sort of in the position where I just want to write what I'm passionate about, not just what is hip n' cool this week. I can't imagine leaving Pi where I left him at the end of this book without bringing his tale to a satisfying conclusion. That's just how I'm wired, yo.

So, regardless of GOODHALO I's fate, there will be a third book. No ifs, ands or butts about it.

Mount Rushmore - Got my hands on an early copy of my 2nd book over the weekend from my editor. It's due out in April, I think and is already listed on Amazon. It's here. They're goofy and have my name listed as Thomas K. Troupe. Yuck. I've contacted them and they're supposed to change it to my full name with the next day or so. I mean, really. The coolest part of my name, methinks, is my middle name. Ya know? Anyway, here's what the cover looks like!

Who ever would've thought I'd write a (gasp!) non-fiction picture book? And about Mount Rushmore, for cryin' out loud. Who? Not me! Regardless, I've gotten nothing but really strong feedback with how well it turned out. The editor said it's easily her favorite in the series. Sweet!

Here's something even sweeter...well, at least funnier.

Yep. It's my little bio, complete with an illustrated picture of yours truly. I cut off the illustrator part, which is below my blurb. I wasn't sure if Matthew Skeens wanted his illustrated moniker out in Bloggy-blog land. I can't decide if the picture looks like me. My wife was quick to inform me that the bio is already outdated. You know, since by the time this comes out, I'll have TWO sons. *sigh* Next book, next book.

Fact or Fiction: Trolls - Well, now that GOODHALO II is going on ice for a bit, I'm going to spend the next month (you know, between diaper changes and what-not with the new boy) working on the first of the three new books. They're supposed to be fun little books about mythical creatures and stuff. I'm doing one on trolls, one on elves, and the last will be about knights. One is due on February 1st and is meant to be a prototype for the series. I think it'll be a blast, but I'm already thinking...Dang, that's not too far away.

ANNA 2.0 - I can't begin to tell you how excited I am to get to work on the next draft of my little fast-draft book I wrote last October. I've often joked that it would be hilarious (as in, not at all) if this book ended up being the one that swept an agent off their feet and not the insane GOODHALO trilogy. My wife claims it's the best book she's read of mine (she still refuses to read Goodhalo or anything with zombies in it), but I know that and about $3 will get me a small coffee, which I wouldn't drink because I hate coffee. So, you know... Anyway, I'm hoping to get to work on ANNA 2.0 right away as it's been soooo long since I even looked at it.

That's all I've got for right now. Hope y'all have a rootin' tootin', pistol-packin' New Years!

See you in '09, doggs.

Hey, I'm going to do my best to not be all boring and tell you how I'm doing on my current work in progress. So, I'll be uber-brief.

GOODHALO II is over halfway done.

Check the progress bar, suckas.

It's rough, it's nasty...but it's gonna be one heckuva story.

Tommy likey.

Hi. I'm not dead. I swear. I've just been sooo wrapped up in writing Goodhalo II that I sort of put the ol' bloggity blog on the back-burner.

You forgive me, right?

No? I'll send a refund.

Here are 10 quick...and I mean QUICK things that have happened and will likely discuss in further detail coming up. Yeah...consider this like a sneak preview of crap to come.

(in no order of importance, y'all)

1. I dropped out of the Great Mustache Growing Contest of 2008. Actually about 5 days ago. Ah....I feel like a meeee-lion dollars.

2. Bunk bed. As in, Travis (age 3.5) now has one.

3. Rage Against the Machine, Ben Folds, Tegan & Sara. As in, I get to go see those three shows (seperately) in the next month.

4. Olympics? Can end anytime, okay thanks.

5. Flight of the Conchords? Best show I've seen on DVD in a long time.

6. I get to write 3 more books that'll get published next year.

7. I won an advanced copy of the Courtney Summers book Cracked Up to Be. Remember how she totally won the haiku contest and won a copy of MY book? Crazy serendipity, yo.

8. The quest for agent-hood has begun! One full is out there, still...waiting. Can you see why I'm writing the sequel now? And the third one next summer?

9. Crazy EMT call a couple weeks back. Cra-zy. It has to do with Dairy Queen, my psychic abilities(?) and bicycles.

10. We find out what kind of kid we're having (hopefully) a week from Friday. You know...like if it's gonna be a boy or a girl?

There. So when I come back, I'll have all kinds of crap to rap at you about. It'll be like old time again. You just wait.

You. Just. Wait.

What it is, Tappers. What. It. Is.

So, I'm trying to set myself a goal for writing the much anticipated (well, I'M anticipating it!) next book in the GOODHALO series. And here is/are the catch(es):

1. I'm trying to get it drafted by the end of September.
2. I think it's going to be 100,000 words or so.
3. I haven't really given myself much of a break.
4. I have video games on my shelf STILL in the wrappers from 2 years ago.
5. Sometimes I don't feel like writing.

I did some quick number crunching of what I've written thus far and what I still need to kick out (which is about as complex math I can handle) and I figured out how many words I'd have to kick out EVERYDAY in order to meet my goal.

1,420 WORDS!

Is that doable? You gots to remember, I wrote the ENTIRE first draft of ANNA 2.0 in 31 days last SHOCKTOBER and that sucker clocked in at 75, 203 words. That was like...2426 words a day. How the heck did I pull that off? Seriously.

So...I think I can do it. I gots to do it. I need the distraction to keep me from constantly checking me e-mail for bad news and to keep myself going. With the impending arrival of Bebe #2 a scant six months away, I need to get some words on the screen...with a quickness.

When ol' Travis was born, I ceased production for around a year. It was really hard to do.

Let's see if I can practice what I preach: Write like the wind, don't look back and whatever you do for crying out loud...don't stop!

Ugh. Me and my big mouth.