Writing update, y'all

Hello everybody. The world is a tire fire right now, and what I’m up to, writing-wise, is rightfully way, way down anybody’s list of concerns. But a few people have checked in, and so I thought it a good idea to give y’all an update.

I’ve got several book in the works – most writers I know like to work on one thing at a time, because most writers I know are smarter than me. Or more normal. Or something. But I am me, and writing me has lots of ideas and a short attention span. So I’ll just give you a rundown of those books that have an actual word count attached to them, and then an estimate of how long I think they’ll be, which’ll give us a good idea of how close they are to being done. They’ll still need editing and such, mind.

Amra Thetys Book 6 (no title yet): around 9,600 words out of an estimated 75,000 (around 12%). After having to re-write book 5 five freaking times to get it to where it didn’t suck, I’m being cautious with Amra and Holgren’s sixth outing. Of course I can’t say much, but I can promise you that in this book, they’ll spend approximately 99.9% of their time in close proximity to each other, rather than apart.

Armor of Faith (The Skin Walker War, Book 3): 29,000 words out of an estimated 75,000 (around 38%). The two previous books in this series clocked in at roughly 50,000 words each. Book 3 will be heftier, because there are lots of characters and lots of stuff going on. For better or worse, I’m still trying to do epic fantasy at a sword & sorcery scale, so no lavish descriptions of feasts and such. This is the book that will likely be finished first this year.

Blood in the Cut (Amra Thetys spin-off): 11,000 words out of an estimated 80,000 (around 13%). Amra’s childhood friend Theiner is still a crime lord in Bellarius, which is still royally screwed up. But like Littlefinger said in that show that had a disappointing ending, chaos is a ladder. And Theiner, or rather Moc Mien, is very good at climbing. This is my Peaky Blinders with magic book. It will almost certainly be a standalone.

Evil Overlord: The Makening: The first book of a planned trilogy. 50,000 words of an estimated 80,000 (around 62%). It’s comedy, and/or satire, following the boy who eventually becomes Gar the Pitiless, Evil Overlord beyond compare. It’s very sweary, and there aren’t really any good guys. It’s the closest to being completed, but I’ve put it on pause because the state of the world is such that lately I’ve had a hard time finding the funny in terrible events. If I can get the black comedy mojo back, it will get finished pretty quick.

Jessep’s Day Out: You may remember Jessep, the long-suffering acolyte of Lhiewyn, high priest of Lagna. He’s appeared in the Amra books, and of course in The Last God. I, uh, I decided to make him the star of a choose your own adventure style book. It’s 80% plotted (gods, what a tangled nightmare) and has maybe around two thousand words written. But it’s like writing three books in one, and keeping everything straight is quite involved, so I try to only work on it when my brain is not mush. Anyway, I hope folks will enjoy the humor when all is said and done.

Tomb 2: Folks have been asking for the next book, which I am very pleased about. I’ve basically just finished plotting it out, but have not yet gotten into the first draft. As soon as either Armor of Faith or Evil Overlord 1 are finished, I will begin the draft. I’m really looking forward to telling the Concubine’s story.

So there you have it. That’s what I’ve got going on in the writing realm. I’ll be honest with you, though – I wrote very little in April and only just returned to something like normal the second week of May. Covid-19 has upended the world, and anxiety and worry over the state of things put a harsh damper on my creativity for a time.

I’m finding my way back. I hope to have something new to offer you in about three months or so. In the meantime, please stay safe. Be like Gran from the Croods.