Before My Second Cup: 4/10/26

Halfway?

It is a beautiful morning over here. Now, if you were sitting in my neighborhood, that statement might have you scratching your head. This week has been full of beautiful mornings, but today, our sky has donned its signature gray coat once more and the morning—while bright and crisp—is not the headliner of the week. For me, the morning is beautiful not for any aesthetic reason but because yesterday I uploaded my second set of chapters for my beta readers.

I haven’t asked for any deadline from any of them at this point. The point of me uploading them in batches of five and as I finish them is to give them the freedom to read at their pace. I don’t think any of them have started yet, but they can read much, much faster than I can write, so being ahead is a good thing. And, again, I’d be worried if this were random beta readers I’d only known for a short while. But these are old, close friends who have been reading my work for years now.

I’m particularly excited about this upload for a few reasons:

1. The story, as I mentioned before, is hitting a stride in this second set of chapters. Everything’s hitting a flow, and the story’s personality is growing. The characters are deepening and are more entertaining, and the world is stretching its wings.

2. It has solidified for me that despite being ten chapters¹ into the story, there is no way this story is just Volume 3. This upload doesn’t yet have us even to the halfway point of the planned story, and, as readers know, Volume 1 was ten chapters and Volume 2 was thirteen chapters. If everything continued as concisely as possible, the stopping point that would allow this story to split into Volume 3 and 4 is likely eight chapters away.² This is a good thing. I am still sitting down to write the same project I set out to; now, it will result in two books instead of one.³

3. Every upload is like a power-up. I feel renewed energy for the project. I haven’t felt any waning of energy with Volume 3, so these uploads have just made me borderline giddy.

And it’s Friday. Even though I’m a writer and am working at home, I still get the same love for Friday and the weekend that everyone else does. After all, it means my husband is also off work, along with our friends, and it’s the time of the week that’s used to recharge my ideas for the following week of work.

I’ve put focus back on the book art as well now that I’m getting further in the manuscript. I still haven’t decided just who I want to feature on Volume 3’s cover. I’m considering four people instead of three, as it feels most appropriate. I might even change the pose layout. Who knows? Everything is up in the air! I’ll probably spend the weekend looking at 80s theatrical release posters to get some ideas, as that’s the style I’ve always gone for.

Speaking of, the beta readers know the blossoming playlist for Volume 3 (a song for each chapter), so I’ll list it here as well, along with names of the chapters. I am currently trying a thing for the chapter titles. I don’t know if it will stick. It’s sucking the life out of me with each chapter I name. But I only had so many dead idioms and puns to use, and that was all done in Volume 1 & 2. This volume has me going for a funny alliteration thing. It might be stupid. Who knows? Anyway:

1. Sheryl Shallock Shares a Shirt — Goo Goo Muck by The Cramps

2. Dreary Depots and Dreams of Daniel — Ghost in You by the Psychedelic Furs

3. Margaret Makes a Major Mistake — Sister Europe by The Psychedelic Furs

4. Wick Wages War — The Policy of Truth by Depeche Mode

5. Theo Thinks, Doctor Drinks — Starman by David Bowie

6. Nate Notices a Name — Pictures of You by The Cure

7. Dead as a Dormouse — Burning Down the House by Talking Heads

8. Spring Swing — Boys Don’t Cry by The Cure

9. Mark Makes a Move — The Promise by When In Rome

10. Prater at the Pub — Just Can’t Get Enough by Depeche Mode

Any of these names are subject to change, especially Chapter 2’s. I don’t know, I just really don’t like that one for some reason. Anyway, we’ll see if I even stick with this whole shtick in the end. One of my beta readers called me a coward when I texted the group chat and mentioned giving up on this. Now I want to see if I can manage it at least through Volume 3. We’ll see.

I’m overjoyed at the state the story is in for draft zero. And having beta readers makes it all the more efficient when it comes to editing this in the future. I hope to get another two chapters done next week, and we’ll see where that puts the fate of Volume 3. I think at the end of next week, I’ll know exactly the amount of chapters this section of the story will take and where I’ll want Volume 3 to end. It will inevitably be longer than any of its predecessors, but I think that’s what happens when a story grows up. It gets too big for its old shoes and needs to get some new ones so it can run.

This is a bit of a short post today, but that’s only because I’m so giddy to get back to work on the manuscript and book art that I don’t want to dwell too long on here just talking about all the work I want to be doing. I’m getting more restless by the day. I’m being careful, though, and pacing out my work so that I don’t overextend myself or lose track of things as I write. Well, don’t lose track of too many things.

In terms of a reading update, I am on book five now of Dungeon Crawler Carl: The Butcher’s Masquerade. I love where the story has been going. I’m also (slowly) reopening Dark Age by Pierce Brown. I have to keep pushing through it while I have Carl to balance it out. I’ve known with all that we had from Iron Gold that a book like Dark Age would need to come along to set up all we need for the final arcs of the Red Rising series.

For a short book to pad my reading goal—to make up for my slowness due to writing books while trying to read them—I picked up Death of a Salesman from the library. I read The Crucible in college and read an excerpt of Salesman for a class, but I never got to read the whole play. So far, I really enjoy it. I don’t think I would have appreciated it when I was in college. There are certain things you need to grow to value to connect with a story like Death of a Salesman.

Anyway, go outside this weekend. Read a book. Stretch your legs. Spring is here!

Cheers,

S. Guild

1. This is only counting chapters that are chronologically completed; I have a few chapters later in the story that are already written but are not yet up to bat.

2. And my estimates often fall short.

3. I saw an appropriately-timed video last night of Matt Dinniman answering questions at an event. He was asked how many books the Dungeon Crawler Carl series is going to be (book eight is out in a month). He said that he can “see where the arrow’s gonna land” (splendid way to articulate that—it’s exactly how it feels from a writer perspective) and that it’s going to be ten books. He corrected himself and said, “It’s really nine books, not ten books. The last book, nine, it’s just gonna be one book split into two… What’s the difference? The difference is I can be a douchebag with the cliffhanger…”