So it’s been a few weeks—actually closer to a month and a half—since I posted an update on everything that I’ve been working on. And I didn’t even notice that that much time had passed! So I figured I’d stop in and give you guys an update on everything I’ve been working on and the status of some of the projects I’ve got coming out eventually. And I guess I’ll start with The Becoming Series.
The Becoming Series
Everything has been full steam ahead with Bloodlines, which is the long-coming book six of the series. I’ve been trying to stay on top of my word count because I’d like to be done with the draft by the end of December at the very latest, so from there I can do revisions, proofread and format it, and get it up for preorder and all the other fun little things that come along with book production. It’s going surprisingly smoothly, which is probably the best thing I can say at this point, considering I had to cut an entire subplot out of it back in October. Most of my work has been on fleshing out and adding to what I already have, plus writing the last half of the book. In the process, I’ve introduced this new character that I am absolutely adoring writing. She’s been a blast to develop, and her introduction has actually led to several plot points that I think I can explore in what will likely be a book seven (which, just to put this out there, doesn’t have a title quite yet).
I’m actually taking this adult continuing education type class called One-Month Story over at Signum University, and I started working on a short story featuring this character, mainly as an attempt to get to know her better and figure out what her story is (but also with the intention of submitting something for a future anthology), but everything with it has taken on a whole life of its own, and said character might end up getting a novella or even an entire short novel.
Once I finish Bloodlines, I can’t wait to start tackling some of the massive problems are characters will be facing because of events in book six. (Speaking of book six, I have a post coming up soon that addresses that book in particular and a smidgeon of what you can expect and some of the challenges I’ve faced in writing it, so keep an eye out for that post!)
So now moving on…
The Unnaturals Series
As I’m sure you’ve noticed, book four in The Unnaturals Series, which is titled Reapers, came out back on September 20th, and it seems like it’s been doing pretty okay. At least, it’s been doing better than I initially expected. This series in particular doesn’t sell quite as well for me as The Becoming Series does. I think a lot of this is that most UF readers tend to wait for the entire series to be available before purchasing, mainly because that genre’s readers in particular have been burned quite often with getting invested in series and then the series never actually being finished. I can sympathize. So, because of this, I had reasonably low expectations for how the book was going to sell. I haven’t decided if those expectations have been met or exceeded, but I’m not entirely unhappy with the result right now.
All that being said, there’s only two books left in the series, and unlike with The Becoming Series, yes, this one will be stopping with six books. Six books has always been my intention, and I never really planned to plot the storyline out for anything beyond that (though at one point I guesstimated that the entire overarching storyline would take nine books to tell—I have been disabused of that notion now that I’m deeper in the process). Even in The Becoming Series, when I wrote Redemption, I dropped some little nuggets in there just in case I ever decided I wanted to explore that little virus-ridden world again. But it wasn’t something I had to do. There weren’t any plans to do anything like that with The Unnaturals Series. So book five is going to be titled Demon Marked, and it’s not only going to be focused on Scott’s niece Katie and what happened to her at the end of Reapers, but also the fallout from the little coup that Brandon pulled off at the end of book four. Then book six is going to follow from that and will be titled Babylon Rising. (I’ve already gotten the cover made for that. If you have me friended on Facebook, you’ve probably seen it a while back.)
The Deadening
Another project I have coming down the pike is actually one that, like, a grand total of five of you have seen the beginning of, and that would be The Deadening. I had initially intended to serialize The Deadening in five parts on amazon, but I really don’t think that format is going to work as well as I had hoped it would now that I’ve taken a step back and reassessed the story as a whole.
So with that being said, since the only place I had it uploaded at was Amazon, I decided to remove it from sale so I could reevaluate it and actually finish writing it. That one is a little more research-heavy than most of the stuff I write, which is generally what happens when you’re writing something that takes place in 1868 New Mexico Territory and you’re shooting for something that at least resembles historical accuracy. But I’m basically going to overhaul that first part I wrote and then continue it on. And I’m hoping—fingers crossed—by summer of 2023 I’ll have a complete novel done. It will probably be a standalone, which is something a bit unusual for me. I don’t normally write standalones, probably because I love to wallow in a created world a little too much (not that there’s anything wrong with that). So yeah, my little horror western is probably going to be coming out sometime next year, best-case scenario in the summer.
Other Projects
I’ve got a few other things spinning in my head and lined up to be outlined so I can test to see if they’ll work. One of them is something that tilts more into urban fantasy, but another project is something that is a little more off the wall for me compared to the stuff I normally write (but I think you guys will like it). I don’t want to say too much about either of them, because I haven’t taken the time to outline yet to see if they’re good, viable stories that I think you’ll want to read, but hopefully I’ll have more information on that soon.
I’ve also been diving more into writing shorter fiction lately, partly inspired by this one-month story class I’ve been taking, and beginning soon, I’ll be writing up some shorter flash-fiction type projects, and starting up a thing here on the blog called Flash Fiction Fridays. So a little drabble or short fiction piece will go up each Friday, and eventually, when I have enough of them, I might collect them into a book to sell, though I haven’t decided for certain yet. But I’m looking forward to playing around with something new with this, and I think you guys will like it!
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Which project of mine are you looking forward to the most? Let me know in the comments below!
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As a friendly reminder, you can still get The Becoming and The Unnaturals, the first books in their respective series, for FREE on all major ebook retailers, along with Payhip, my online store where you can purchase books directly from me!
The Becoming is now available in audiobook format from Tantor Media! You can check it out and pick up your copy by visiting Audible or Audiobooks.com.
The Unnaturals is also available in audiobook format from Tantor Media! You can pick up your copy of that audiobook by visiting Audible or Audiobooks.com.
“The Night the Moon Died,” a new short story that takes place in The Becoming Universe, is also available from all major retailers for the low price of $0.99! This story takes place after Redemption and before Bloodlines and will reveal a major problem that our intrepid characters will face in Bloodlines. Be sure to check it out by clicking HERE.
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