Not quite sure when, but probably in a few months or so my second short story of the year will be published in the forthcoming Explorations sci-fi anthology (by Woodbridge Press, the same firm that did the well-received Haunting of Lake Manor Hotel anthology, in which I also have a story). Quite pleased, and mildly surprised to be in it, given there were few free slots and many of the authors (Jo Zebedee and Ralph Kern to name but two whose works I've read) are best-selling sci-fi authors.
My story's called Dead Weight, so watch out for that.
As well as an update (see below) on novels, I thought it might be of interest to bang on a bit about the odd process of writing stuff that won't be out for years.
Writing a trilogy's tricky in lots of ways. If you screw up the first part, then you're buggered, so you have to take especial care (not only with quality but also to try and ensure you don't paint yourself into a corner for later books).
Not only that, but you need to have book endings that are conclusive within that book's story arc, whilst still leaving open the over-arching trilogy plot. Time (and reviews) will tell how well or badly I've done with that.
A serious problem is that you can't kill everyone you want to right away, because there are still two books left to come. That said, I did get to write a few juicy deaths, so hopefully readers will enjoy those.
But there are plus points too. If people love book one (as I'm sure you will. Can you name any other books with cross-dressing knights and lesbian princesses? Ok, probably, but are they as good as mine? An absurd suggestion) then you've got one and probably two more sales in the bag.
On a less tawdry note, you can make the plots more intricate and have, over the course of three or more books, characters and their relationships change gradually yet substantially.
In short, you can do more, but there's added complexity to writing because if you get the first book wrong (either because it's poor or because it makes the latter two difficult) then you're in trouble.
Following a Twitter poll (I'm @MorrisF1 for those interested) I've decided to go for an annual release schedule. I'm near certain Traitor's Prize, the second book, will be released a year after Kingdom Asunder. The third book may prove trickier (obviously I'll delay if necessary) but time shall tell.
At the moment, I'm splitting my workload between that and Sir Edric and the Plague (which I'm about halfway through). If needs be, I'll put Plague on hiatus to focus on book three, but I'm hoping I can keep working on both.
Anyway, that's how things stand. If Kingdom Asunder is out this year, that'll be my fourth of 2016 (including two novels and two short stories in anthologies). When Explorations has its release date I'll be sure to bang on about it.
Thaddeus
My story's called Dead Weight, so watch out for that.
As well as an update (see below) on novels, I thought it might be of interest to bang on a bit about the odd process of writing stuff that won't be out for years.
Writing a trilogy's tricky in lots of ways. If you screw up the first part, then you're buggered, so you have to take especial care (not only with quality but also to try and ensure you don't paint yourself into a corner for later books).
Not only that, but you need to have book endings that are conclusive within that book's story arc, whilst still leaving open the over-arching trilogy plot. Time (and reviews) will tell how well or badly I've done with that.
A serious problem is that you can't kill everyone you want to right away, because there are still two books left to come. That said, I did get to write a few juicy deaths, so hopefully readers will enjoy those.
But there are plus points too. If people love book one (as I'm sure you will. Can you name any other books with cross-dressing knights and lesbian princesses? Ok, probably, but are they as good as mine? An absurd suggestion) then you've got one and probably two more sales in the bag.
On a less tawdry note, you can make the plots more intricate and have, over the course of three or more books, characters and their relationships change gradually yet substantially.
In short, you can do more, but there's added complexity to writing because if you get the first book wrong (either because it's poor or because it makes the latter two difficult) then you're in trouble.
Following a Twitter poll (I'm @MorrisF1 for those interested) I've decided to go for an annual release schedule. I'm near certain Traitor's Prize, the second book, will be released a year after Kingdom Asunder. The third book may prove trickier (obviously I'll delay if necessary) but time shall tell.
At the moment, I'm splitting my workload between that and Sir Edric and the Plague (which I'm about halfway through). If needs be, I'll put Plague on hiatus to focus on book three, but I'm hoping I can keep working on both.
Anyway, that's how things stand. If Kingdom Asunder is out this year, that'll be my fourth of 2016 (including two novels and two short stories in anthologies). When Explorations has its release date I'll be sure to bang on about it.
Thaddeus
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