I suppose I should open this post with an apology; I'd intended Polaris 3: Terrible Swift Sword to be on sale, well, today, but that just didn't happen, I'm afraid. The original version dragged out to thirty thousand words and collapsed in on itself, committing the cardinal sin of tedium. So – I scrapped it, completely re-plotted, and started again today. I can now report that it is flowing like an absolute dream, and that I have every confidence that I should make rapid progress...though it won't be out this month. I'm now aiming square at October 4th, and I think I can make that a firm date at this point. The bonus is that the book you'll get ten days late will be a hell of a lot better than the book you'd have got today. Next, I'll be working on...Polaris 4: He Never Died, actually, and I have a strong idea about where that is going to go, enough that I'm planning for a release date of October 25th. Yes, three weeks apart. I might even shave a little off that. Polaris 5: Shattered Genesis, should be out in the second week of December, probably the 12th, and will both conclude the series and be the final book of the year. It's getting close now, isn't it!
I've been teasing a few secret projects for a while now, and I can formally start to talk about a project that is very dear to my heart, and one that will be coming very soon. As many of you will know, NaNoWriMo is coming up, a challenge to write a fifty thousand word book in a single month. I'll stress that this should be a readily attainable goal; it's seventeen hundred words a day, and I think it a fantastic place for a writer to start; it's a skill that is critical to success in the industry as it stands today. (I'd actually usually recommend shooting for sixty thousand, an average of two thousand words a day – and I'd further recommend shorter warm-ups earlier in the year, maybe 'NaNoWriWeek', trying for fifteen thousand word novellas.)
Here's an admission. I never actually did it. I tried a couple of times, but even since I've been doing this full-time, I've not managed to write a book entirely in November, bizarrely enough. It's almost as if there is something holding me back. Well, this year, I'm going to do it. Though after my own fashion. I write a book a month most months; I've actually passed six-figures in a month a few times this year. So, I'm doing things a little differently. Allow me to introduce something new, something that is, frankly, insane. Something I call NaNoWriTriMo.
As I've said several times in the past – to the point that I suspect it's getting a little tiresome to you, but bear with me, dear reader – I want to break into a new genre, and fantasy is increasingly calling to me. This isn't the time – and soon, it won't be the place – for a discussion about the merits of the genre, but I will say that I have an epic story in mind, and that you're going to see it starting sometime in the early second quarter of next year. Except...I want to start sooner, and I've decided to give myself a break from science-fiction for a little while. Specifically – I have a prequel series in mind for the planned epic series. One that will work at shorter lengths (I'm projecting 140k for the epics) that might work for what I have in mind, and one that I've been wanting to tell for a while.
So, here's the rules of the game. Over the course of November, I'm going to write it. Starting November 1st (with a week's planning time beforehand) I intend to write a complete trilogy of short novels, each a minimum of 50,000 words, in all other ways complying with the rules of NaNoWriMo. I intend to chronicle this on a fantasy-themed blog, the 'Warlock's Lair', which I am already in the process of setting up, and while I don't intend to release it until February, I will have a completed draft by then. (And this, to me, is a rest.) It's going to be the biggest challenge I've ever set myself, but I think it's going to be a lot of fun, as well...
Fnatasy?
ReplyDeleteBattleGalleon Alamo ;)