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# Cereus & Limnic: Escape From Okinawa | 40K Word Update - 2nd draft
- URL: https://keithhayden.net/cereus-limnic-escape-from-okinawa-40k-word-update-2nd-draft/
- Published: 2026-08-25T05:17:04.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-25T05:17:04.000Z
- Description: Cereus & Limnic: Escape From Okinawa - Type B: 40K words second draft
- Author: Keith Hayden
- Tags: clefo

> He stands 188 centimeters, the tall one you saw above the others. A mountain of unchecked footing, they call him “DOGFATHER.”

Okay I've been horrible at these updates lately. You know what else I've been bad at lately?

Writing. Or more specifically editing this damn thing.

Two months have passed since my last update and in that time, I've managed to scrape past another slow 10K words toward this behemoth of a manuscript.

Suddenly the end of 2026 publish deadline (which felt so far off months ago) doesn't seem doable.

I do have excuses. Good ones, that have legitimately compromised my writing time this summer. Biggest one being the intensive coding bootcamp I've been enrolled in full-time since June. I've kept an entire [blog](https://code-platoon-blog.pages.dev/blog/?ref=keithhayden.net) going during the entire experience.

Or the audiobook producing jobs, that arrived right as the bootcamp was beginning. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to be getting paid to do something I enjoy, but producing audiobooks during a full time coding bootcamp while keeping up a novel editing schedule is tough for even me.

Then there's the secret book that I published last week in a poorly thought out, but highly successful experiment to see if I could use my newly acquired coding skills to layout a book in a day. I'm happy to report that it worked and the memoir dictionary *Hayden's Field Dictionary: First Edition* became my first published title of 2026.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/18/bf/18bf29db-1cec-4857-a9dc-e2e94a86d2bf/content/images/2026/08/Hayden-s-field-dictionary.jpg)

There are only 13 physical copies of this book anywhere on the planet right now. I don't plan to print more (they're not cheap). So if you're reading this you're in the rare position to get the first edition of my dictionary series.

If you're interested in hearing more, reply to this email.

I was about to do it again. Start to tell you more about this latest book, and shun *Escape From Okinawa,* this novel that is years in the making that I keep finding reasons to not finish.

This isn't like me. 

Usually when I begin a writing project I'm very disciplined about finishing. Oxen don't stray from the path too often, like me. But this one is different. Subconsciously I know why. The story is too close to home. I've had some family drama this year, a surprise estrangement that made me nearly quit writing it completely. It took me weeks to come back to it. 

And I keep adding things. Characters, the formatting has to be oddly exceptional, and the way this story wants to be told keeps dragging the process on and on. Every time I get an acceleration on it, I hit spikes in the road that blowout a tire or two leaving me steaming on the side of the road. Then some new shiny project or easier thing surfaces and I go do that, anything but face the novel!

So now I've set a firm deadline: November 2026, I plan to have a prototype of this novel to show at Author Nation in Vegas. Then the public release will follow shortly after in December 2026\. It's gonna happen. I hope, we'll see.