It’s been a while since I’ve pushed out an update. Life has been sprinting lately, and I’ve had trouble keeping up. Here we are in the Autumn of another year, and I’ve got books to publish.
Lucky for you guys, two of them are finished, and the third is almost there.
First, an update on word counts: The Heart of the Wasteland stands at 250,531. I’ve got about another week and a half of writing to do on it, and I think it could swell up to 275k. That’s a huge book. I’ve surrendered to the idea of it becoming a door-stopper, and I’m embracing the length (no jokes, people). Expect a long story with many, many POVs. Expect epic fights and the culmination of multiple storylines. It’s planned for release in the next six months, but if you want to read it early, the current version is available to my Patrons here.
Next, we have the first two books in the Beyond the Eternity Line universe coming out soon. One is a prequel novella–free to my mailing list readers–and the other is the official first book of the series. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that Beyond the Eternity Line is a story that’s been evolving for years. It began as a pseudo-steampunk story with airships and a hard magic system, and has now found its final form as a Space Opera. It’s a world that I truly love, and I hope you’ll love it, too.
The first novella is free, and if you want to read it, you can join my list and I’ll send it right over.
Still He Burns is a story about a retired Fluxweaver who tries to escape a war, but war finds him anyway. If you’re a fan of Firefly, The Expanse, or Star Wars, I’m sure you’ll love it. It’s got that emotional last-stand type of feeling, and if you’re into that, you’ll definitely enjoy it.
It’s followed by Through Burning Skies, which continues the action-packed themes, adds a little spy-thriller on top, and throws in a misfit crew having to navigate a galactic war. The book is already finished, and though it’s yet to be released, it’s also available to my Patrons. If you’re interested in reading anything I write before the release day, Patreon has what you want.
As far as life goes, it’s been up and down since last we spoke. I negotiated my contract again at work, which allows me to spend more time writing–hence, all these completed and near-completed projects. I got a cat named Flaco, then Flaco got cancer and we lost him. I caught a tarantula, named him Horatio, and showed him off to all my friends at a party. I let him go later that same night. The next morning, I caught another tarantula, and this time, it was a female.
I like to tell myself that after I caught Horatio, he scurried home and promised his wife that yes, a huge alien really did capture him and keep him in a plastic box half the night, and no, he hadn’t been at that other hussy’s nest, of course. And she had to come find out for herself. I let her go right after catching her. I am, of course, a gentleman.
Since then I’ve seen Horatio two more times, but now I just let him hunt. We have an understanding.
Speaking of wildlife, I ran into an entire herd of javelinas the other day. I live kind of on the outskirts of Tucson, along a dirt road, and we get a lot of animals out here–in case you couldn’t tell from the picture of Horatio. Javelinas are always out here, but it’s rare that you see them in a huge group like that. Usually it’s smaller family groups.
Every morning I go on an hour-long walk and dictate my words for the day. So, there I was, mid-scene in The Heart of the Wasteland, when about twenty javelinas started crossing the road in front of me. One approached me, but it ran when I moved toward it. Just remember that, at some point in Chapter Eleven, when you finally read it, I had that encounter while writing the scene. Sadly, I didn’t get any pictures.
Anyways, expect The Heart of the Wasteland to be finished soon, expect Through Burning Skies to go live on Kickstarters in the next 30 days or so, and Still He Burns is available now. Much love, people, and I’ll type at you soon.