Hey there! Happy new year. A little late here, but I spent the holidays dealing with a stomach flu at Christmas and then a nasty head cold at New Years. My wife brought home the stomach bug from her office and gave that to me, and I brought home the head cold and gave that to her. Great, huh? This is the first time I can honestly say I am glad the holiday season is over, the decorations down and we can just get back to relatively "normal" day-to-day activities.
I do hope your holidays went much better and your 2018 is already off to a great start. I just thought I would give a bit of an update on 2018. Of course, these plans will likely change 1 billion times before the end of the year, but these are the current plans
SPIDAR
Yeah, so SPIDAR is supposed to be out January 8 (tomorrow) and that was what my contact with the publisher told me weeks ago. However, I have followed up with him a few times so far to find out if we are still on track for that release date - and have not heard back. So, tomorrow morning I will be waking up and check Amazon and see if my own book is there or not. As soon as I know for sure, I will let you know and send links and stuff.
This one is pretty scary and I think you'll really like it. It is my first pure horror tale in a while with some really terrifying (and even gross) stuff in it. Plenty of action and tension, too. I have had this one coming down the river for a while now and am so excited it is almost here for you to read!
Taking a Break
I am working on a sci-fi thriller now called The Revisionists about some very smart people who find a way to change reality and history. They then find out doing so has terrible and terrifying consequences. I am very close to finishing the first draft and then will likely send it out for two rounds of Beta readers and rewrites before it is ready for publication. I am shooting for a late spring early summer release for it.
As for the rest of this year - well, for the first part of it, I am taking a break. Yes, SPIDAR will be out and I will be promoting the holy hell out of it, but I am not planning on starting a new novel for at least a couple months. I want to work on the website here, for example. My day job is writing great content for websites that get results - and I have never used those talents for my own site. Time to do that.
I also feel like this blog has been sorely neglected. I come out to my site and work on things all the time and think - I should write for my blog more. Then I never seem to have time. I also plan on writing my newsletter more steadily (check out the newsletter page to sign up).
That means SPIDAR will be out in January. The Revisionists will likely be May or June. I plan on publishing a collection of short stories in the fall, too, say around October. I always end up with something around Christmas, too.
2017 was a busy year. I particularly worked hard at the end of it with short stories and writing novels. I also worked hard trying to find publishers or an agent. I found a publisher for SPIDAR, but still not agent. It wore me out!
Elementals 3
That being said, I am very aware of the demand for the third novel in the Elementals series. I have plans for it. I was originally going to start on it at the end of 2017, but The Revisionists insisted I write it first and I listened.
So, the third one is in my head and just waiting for its turn. However, due to my planned break, I wouldn't anticipate work starting on it until late spring or summer. Then it would need edits and rewrites. There is a slim chance of it coming out at the end of 2018, but it may not be here until 2019.
And the rest?
I also have plans for the third novel in the Rotate the Earth trilogy, but that will be a monster book and likely not out until 2019. I also have ideas in my head for an historical horror novel set during World War I. Also, ideas for a fourth Deklan Falls novel and plans to re-publish new versions of the existing Deklan books. Plus, plenty of other novels in my head, including a possible return to Knorr, PA, everyone's favorite scary little town.
Thanks for being there in 2017. Here's hoping 2018 is a much better year and I promise, although the output may be slower than last year, you'll love the stories.