This is just a brief update for that handful of people who might be wondering about my writing progress, since I’ve been quiet lately.
Book 1 (Peer Through Time):
I spent much of the year revising it after an initial round of professional editing and some beta-reader feedback. It’s now back with the editor and I expect to call it complete by the end of 2014 or early 2015, at which time it will finally make its debut. Meanwhile, I’ve been studying self-publishing and have decided that’s the way I want to go. This is not a rejection of traditional publishing—I hope to ultimately become a hybrid author, with some projects published traditionally and others via the DIY route—but for my first book, I’ve concluded it’s more important for me to have the final say on cover design, editing, and the publishing timeline than I would have with a big publisher, even if it means having less visibility.
Book 2 (working title – Gravity’s Loop):
I wrote 50,000 words of it—about half a novel—during National Novel Writing Month, a.k.a. NaNoWriMo, in November 2013. I had no day job at the time, which is the only reason I was able to produce so much. Approximately one-quarter of this writing was worth saving and revising. I spent months drafting different plot ideas, running out of ideas and nearly abandoning it. One day, seemingly out of nowhere, the entire plot appeared in my head, so I sat down at the keyboard and summarized it as fast as I could. Since then, the ideas keep coming faster than I can write. Over the past few months I’ve re-shaped and re-plotted it, and now Draft #1 is nearing the midpoint.
Book 3 (actually the first book I wrote, but set aside, so – Book 0?):
It’s in the hospital. It’s not dead. A few more surgeries and it will be ready for eventual release. But the surgeon is too busy with other things right now, so on the waiting list it remains.
Other projects:
The decision to self-publish is basically a decision to start a company—to become an entrepreneur. This was an incredibly daunting idea at first, but once I dove in, I found it to be not only a means to an end, but an end in itself. I wrote a separate article on this, which will tentatively be published as part of an anthology on the writing and publishing process with other indie authors. More on that to follow in the months to come.
This will be my final blog on this particular website. After that, everything will shift over to my own website.
