On What Happens Next

Well, four books are up! That is good...

Soooo, now what?

My focus on getting Iron Angels and Badger done has kind of consumed my attention for the past few months. I've literally spent every spare hour that I could on those projects, but that has left the ground in several other areas a little bare. My blog is, shall we say, a bit out of date and shabby, I've done little in the way of promotion, and my other books have been a bit neglected. Now I finally have the time and energy to devote to them, but I'm faced with the need to choose which one!

So in terms of my main writing goals, I think that Murders is my next revision target. That book was originally supposed to come out near the end of 2012 and cap my efforts for the year. Even though Hector Kingsley has not been my most popular work, I think that I will at the very least finish up this sequel. Besides, while explosions are nice, I think I need a short break for a while so that I don't burn the action side of my brain out.

New projects will include Broken Halo (Iron Angels' sequel) and Eagle (next book in the Jacob Hull series). I'll be poking along with those while I get their stories set up, and hopefully will finish both rough drafts before the end of the year. That should give me plenty of time to get both books out during 2013.

Of course, there's always the side projects. My blog needs to be reorganized and such. Maybe there should be time set aside for that on Saturdays? I don't know. Bah. Too much to do and not enough time... See you around!

On Two More Down, One to Go

Iron Angels and Badger are both now live! Hurry, go buy them. :)

On a more serious note, we've gotten two books closer to my goal for the first year of publishing. My initial plan was to publish four books over the course of a year; with Wolfhound, Badger, Iron Angels and the True Adventures of Hector Kingsley, we've pretty much done that. Now the last part of that goal was to publish four books in 2012, which means I just have one left to work on, the sequel to Hector Kingsley.

I can't help but feel a little accomplished. We've done a lot of work the past few months, and hopefully we now get to see it pay off! Of course, there's also that panic and mania that sets in at times like this. What if they don't sell? What if I messed them up somehow? That sort of thing will probably mean I won't get very much sleep anytime soon, but such is the price of chasing a dream...

Anyway, I hope that you guys enjoy the stories, and I will see you around!

On Deadlines

Just in case you guys are wondering where I've been the past few weeks. :)

Badger is starting to look more and more done. We might be a little close to the wire at the end, but I still think we are going to have it out by August 14th. If not, I will let everyone know.

Until that point though, back to work...

PS. And of course, all credit and thanks go to my distinguished cover artist, Paul Hamblin, who has been kind enough to bear with me on a second book. Thanks!

On Early Mornings and Productivity

I've recently made a change in my morning routine. Said change involves me getting up at five thirty in an attempt to get some writing done before the chaos of my day comes crashing in.

So far, my little experiment has been a resounding success. I've gotten an astonishing amount done in the past few weeks, even with the intrusion of a chaotic vacation and a few other difficulties. At the same time, I've been sleeping a little better, and I've felt like there has been a remarkably positive change in my mood. Crazy what a little advice from Benjamin Franklin can do, huh?

As a result, the crushing amount of work I've been facing has declined to somewhat managable levels. Both books look like they are going to come out more or less as planned, and I've even been able to head off some interesting problems before they've started. New intro material is ready to go into the back parts of my books, setting up a schedule for Eagle (Jacob Hull's next book) and Broken Halo (Iron Angel's sequel), as well as Murders in Whitechapel. I'm still debating on the schedule for some of the projects for 2013, but that's probably for another post. As things stand, I'll just be happy to finish 2012 with two Hector Kingsley novels, two Jacob Hull novels, and one Iron Angels book out, and it is looking like I'll actually be able to pull that off.

That is, if five thirty doesn't kill me first. Seriously, it's productive, but just seeing that number hurts...