After Six Months of Silence

Have you ever put something off for so long that the thought of completing the task actually becomes more unbearable than the task itself? That’s been me and this blog for the last few months. Time and again an opportunity to post some snippet of bit of news has come and gone, and I’ve found excuses not to do so. “Oh, it doesn’t matter, nobody reads this thing anyway”, “Whatever, this information wouldn’t interest anyone”, “Why should I take the time when I have so many other things to do?”

While there may be some truth to that (I often feel as if I’m yelling into a void when I post here. Not that that is a criticism to anyone who might be reading this; that’s just my general sense when posting on what is arguably a dying platform for communication), none of the above is an excuse for my silence. Even if this blog serves no other purpose than as a record of my writing experiences, I still need to try to stay on top of it. One day I might want to look back on these times, and then I’ll be glad for the record.

So, I come before you, humbled and ashamed: six months have passed, and I have been silent.

One might argue that there was precedent for this behavior. The world has been a strange place for the last six months, after all. Disease, shutdowns, wildfires, square-dancing hurricanes, the world itself sometimes feels like it’s falling into chaos. I’ve always found it easier to retreat inside myself in times of trouble, turn to the worlds of my own creation, because they’re safer, in a way—they’re under my control. So I have ignored not just this blog over the last few months, but many obligations. I haven’t been in communication with friends, I’ve been lax on many of my other platforms. Hell, even garden never got planted this year, and I usually love the quiet time outside. For some reason, going outside to dig and hoe just felt too exhausting. So much has for the last few months, and I can’t say COVID is to blame for that. Not entirely, anyway. I’ve just been… elsewhere, mentally. It took a while to clamber back up, and even longer to return to my usual avenues of interaction. By the time I did, fall was upon us, and the year is already close to over.

Not that I’m entirely without things to show for it. I did release the first Bulletproof Witch omnibus back in August, which not only includes the first four books, but also a short story I wrote last summer (“short” being relative; it’s still around 10,000 words).

I also finished writing another book during the summer, one that came from an unexpected place—the LitRPG subgenre. During lockdown I kind of fell in love with the stories and decided to try my hand at my own. Before I knew it I had a completed manuscript, and a plan for a quadrilogy (you can see this now listed in my updated Author Works section).

The first book is to be called Fatedancer, and should be out sometime in November. Sadly, I don’t have a link for it yet as I’m still waiting for artwork to be completed, but once I do I’ll come back here and post some pictures and links. Also, I guess I do have a map available to look at if that sort of thing interests you.

There are two downsides to this announcement, unfortunately. The first is that I’m going to have to push back finishing the second half of Bulletproof Witch by about a year (book five is still on schedule to release next June, I’m about a quarter done with the first draft already). After book five, I’m going to alternate between writing BW and this new series (called the Books of the Ascendent, or BoA henceforce). So book 2 of BoA should be out late 2021, and book 6 of BW will be out in 2022. Of course, that’s subject to change if I get the bug to finish writing one over the other, but I think I’m going to try and hold to that, especially because I have some plans with how the books relate to each other.

Both series take place on separate worlds with separate magic systems, but they are part of a shared universe. Eventually there may be some crossover between them. Very minor, but I do have something in the works. So, because of that, timing may be a bit more set for me than normal.

The other downside to finishing Fatedancer, though not directly related to it, is that my standalone work Greenfingers is now on permanent TBD status. Unfortunately, I had been hoping to pick back up on working on it, but several attempts to progress the story have gone nowhere. I’m just not in the right spot for working on it, I think, so I’m going to keep it as a side project while focusing on my other two main stories right now. I know that probably doesn’t matter to anyone but me, and an agrarian coming-of-age fantasy probably wasn’t going to be of interest to many readers regardless, but I’d still like to see it completed at some point.

Alright, that’s enough from me for now. I’ll be back with Fatedancer news soon.

Episode 4 is Live!

I’m happy to report the ebook for Bulletproof Witch 4 is now available on Amazon, with the paperback hopefully available later today or tomorrow at the latest (Amazon can be weird sometimes about the timing of these things). If you hadn’t seen my link for it in my earlier post, here it is again:

Going forward from this, I’m continuing my work on Greenfingers, although I may or may not have a side project that I’m trying to finish before that. I don’t want to say much more about that until it’s actually done, in case I end up tossing that one aside, which unfortunately happens more frequently than I care to admit. For every book I publish, three have been started and left on the wayside. Maybe I’ll get back to them all someday…

Also, I’m planning to release an omnibus of the first four BW books sometime in the fall. This probably isn’t of interest to anyone reading my blog, since I’m guessing you own one or more volumes already, but if you’ve been thinking about telling a friend to read my books, that might be a perfect time to do so. The omnibus will be cheaper than buying all the books separately, but won’t come with any of the interior artwork.

In more personal news, I’m still working my regular job at home from lockdown. One would think that not having to drive places or interact with people would leave me plenty of time for writing, but one would be wrong on that front. Between my children and trying to get 8 hours of actual work done on any given day, I’m feeling run through the wringer by the time 8PM rolls around. Plus now with spring coming on I have planting to start considering. Those squash won’t grow themselves, after all. Next few months will be interesting, to say the least.

Alright, if you made it this far, thank you once again for your continued support, and I hope everyone enjoys reading Death Rides at Sunset. Feel free to message me or leave a comment here about what you thought of it.

The Wrack!!!

So frequent readers to this blog may know I’m friends with (the infinitely more talented) John Bierce, who I recently had the luck and pleasure of beta reading his latest book, called The Wrack. Well I just noticed today that it finally went up for pre-order (April 23 release!), so if you’re looking to read something that isn’t guns and daemons for once, you should wander on over and order a copy.

Seriously, it’s amazing, go check it out.

HUGE Book Sale for the next 48 hours!

Hey everyone! I bet you were probably expecting not to hear from me for another month, weren’t you? Well, I hate to disappoint but I have BIG NEWS.

Author Bryce O’Connor organized a giant book sale, with all the participants agreeing to put at least 50% of proceeds towards COVID-19 relief. While I’m sure if you’re reading this you have my books already, but you should go check out all the other awesome (and much more talented writers than myself) who are included. Seriously, there are some AMAZING books in there, and with them being $0.99 right now, how can you go wrong? Check out the link below:

Giant Book Sales!!!

Book 4 Pre-Order Is Live!

That’s right, after months of silence, I’m happy to announce that I have a solid release date for book four. Click on the image below for more information:

Happy Anniversary!

Today marks exactly one year since I published The Delivery of Flesh. At the time, I didn’t know if anyone would ever even see the book beyond a few friends. A year later the book has been downloaded over 10,000 times, and managed to reach #1 in its category (for all of about 10 minutes, but still!)

I’ve also learned way more about writing and publishing in this last year than I did in the previous three combined. With each book I publish I feel like I’m getting a little closer to being an actual writer. Who knows, one day I might actually get there!

Anyway, afraid that’s all I’ve really got to say today. I was hoping to use the anniversary to announce that I had finished the first draft of book 4 (to be titled Death Rides at Sunset), but sadly I am still a few thousand words from finishing. With luck I’ll get there by the middle of this week, and can start refining it to send to beta readers at the end of the month. Fingers crossed!

Saturday

So just thought I would share a little image of my “extensive” note tracking system for book 4. Behold my writing methodology in all its glory:

As you can see, only the most cutting edge notepaper is used for tracking my thoughts and plotlines. If you squint closely you might even spot a spoiler or two, but given the low quality of my camera I’m guessing not. Oh well!

#1!!!

So I just had to share, Episode 3 is now a #1 new release in its (albeit rather specialized) category!!!

Episode 3 is Live!

If you missed my other half-billion posts on the subject, consider this your official announcement: episode 3 of Bulletproof Witch, titled Arkton at High Noon, is now available for sale! Both my longest and most complex book to date, I must admit to being a bit proud of this one. It certainly was a long journey getting it out the door, but something tells me the effort will all be worth it.

Also, if for some reason you haven’t picked up episode 1 & 2 yet, or if you know someone you’ve been meaning to recommend them to but just hadn’t got around to doing so, now is the time! Both volumes will be free from now through Sunday.

In the meantime, I’m off to get deep into writing episode 4, to be titled Death Rides at Sunset, with a planned April release date. I’m planning to get a good bulk of it done during November, so hopefully I’ll have a better idea of its exact status sometime before Christmas. Stay tuned!

Episode 1

Episode 2