New month, new project. I was finally able to wrap up my work on Firmament: Gestern, book five in the series, last month, and now I’m ready to move ahead with publishing the fourth! I”m extra excited about this one. First, because it’s a plotline I’ve wanted to use for years and I think people are really going to enjoy it, second, because it’s been way too long since I published a Firmament novel, and third, because I already have cover art for this one and there’s just something so brilliant about seeing the cover art for your book.

Adulting, though, makes everything more complicated. First of all, printer ink. It’s so darn expensive. My editing process involves printing out the entire manuscript, putting it in a binder, and marking it up with post-it notes and red pencil until I’m ready to start the second draft (which I retype from scratch). Sure I play with the font size and the margins to use as little paper and ink as possible, but that’s still a whole awful lot of printing. And I was more than a little low on black ink for my printer. No problem. I’ll just run to Walmart and buy–twenty dollars worth of black ink. Seriously? And while I’m there I have to pick up makeup, Q-tips, dinner for that evening, and french bread (I didn’t really need the french bread, but it was fifty cents). That adds up. Much more than I think it should.

But okay. I have my ink now. I get back home and start printing. Thankfully I have enough paper for this project. Printing sounds play in the background as I rush to finish editing on my latest audiobook job.

Wait. Binder. Did I bring any binders from home when I moved last summer? Let me go look.

Nope. All my empty binders are six hours away. If my siblings haven’t already used them. Now the starving artist’s dilemma–do I just take the pages out of one of the previous book’s binders (which I did bring) or go buy a new one? How much do binders cost anyway?

And I don’t own a three-hole punch either, do I. My dad’s, which I always used, is six hours away, with him, in his office. How much do three-hole punches cost, I wonder? I did bring my post-it notes, right? And do I own a red pencil? How much do pencils cost? Do they cost more than a loaf of french bread? Would it be any good to risk breaking tradition and just use a normal #2 gray pencil?

So many hurdles for a simple job. And that’s not even counting how I’m going to make time for the editing itself between audiobooks, freelance writing, church, being social, housework, and the general weariness of life. I don’t know how I’m going to do it. But I do know I’m going to. Because I always have before. There’s always some unique issue at the forefront, but I’m a stubborn person, and I always manage to get around it.

So, whatever the cost, there will (Lord willing) be a new Firmament book out this year. It’s going to be exciting. And expensive. And exhausting. But it’s definitely not going to be expected.

Firmament: Reversal Zone, here we go.