It’s been a little over a year since Magician Prince, the
finale to The Magician Rebellion Trilogy was released. Since then I have taken
a step back from writing. That is not to say that I have stopped writing, far
from it. I just have not made it the sole focus of my life that it was while I
worked on The Magician Rebellion. After spending two years writing non-stop in
my free time to produce three novels, I was pretty well burnt out. Instead I
have chosen to spend more of my time with my family, friends, and if you know
me, then you know I am an avid gamer, so a lot of that too, in an effort to
recharge my batteries.
Like I said, that does not mean that I have not been writing
and since this little sporadic blog is all about my forays into writing, then you
can guess what I want to discuss: What I’ve been working on for the last year.
I’ve been working on three projects at once and that, too,
is part of the reason why I have not been able to release anything since last
May. Logically, I know that it is best to work on one thing at a time, but I am
also trying to allow myself to write naturally and that means moving back and
forth between projects right now. So without further ado, here is a glimpse
into what I’ve been up to.
Rising Sun (working title)
Rising Sun takes place in a world that is one part fantasy
and one part steam punk. It is about a teenager in the middle of the awkward
years between being a boy and a man who finds himself with nothing when his
father is executed for crimes against the king and how he pulls himself up and
moves forward with his life. Beyond that I don’t want to get too deep into the
plot, but I will say that there will be all sorts of fantastic things including
airships, strange creatures, ghosts, smugglers, sexy cat-women, and of course a
massive conspiracy in the making.
One of the lessons that I learned from The Magician
Rebellion is not to do the end of the book cliffhangers. This can be
disappointing to readers who want a complete story and puts additional pressure
on me to finish those stories in a timely manner. So Rising Sun will be a
completely self-contained story. However, it is a universe that I really enjoy
and could not help plotting out a seven book arc, giving it a lot of room to
grow if it turns out that people other than me like it too.
Most of my time has been spent on this book and the first
draft is about 65% complete.
Vampire Country (working series title)
Remember how I said that I’m a gamer. Well I bet you can
guess that I like games with a lot of deep story and character development. So
it is little wonder that I became a fan Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead and
The Wolf Among Us series and I have really enjoyed the episodic nature of their
stories and thought it would be fun to do an episodic series along those lines
that when complete will be the length of a full novel.
I’ve also been into the post-apocalyptic genre recently, but
zombies have been done to death (pardon the bad pun). Vampires have also been
popular in recent years, but I am not into the myriad of handsome, sexy,
twinkly vampires that make the whole idea of becoming a vampire seem so
appealing. Vampirism is supposed to be a curse and vampires are supposed to be
monsters and should be treated as such.
In Vampire Country, people suddenly start transforming into
the vicious monsters without any warning and this series focuses on a group of
Chicagoans as they deal with this unexpected and serious threat.
Where this differs from most post-apocalyptic tales is that
it is not truly post-apocalyptic. Most stories focus on one person or a small
group all alone and while that might be how the first “episode” starts out
subsequent chapters will reveal that there are whole communities of people that
are finding ways to not only survive, but find some sense of normalcy amidst
the devastation.
Vampire Country will be broken up into a set of six short
novella-length stories that I plan to release in two month intervals after the
first one comes out. Each story will be self-contained with one possible exception
being the penultimate volume.
Vampire Country is about halfway done with the first
“episode” or volume, if you prefer, but I plan to have the first two or three
completed before releasing any of them, so that I can meet the bi-monthly
schedule.
Magician’s Apprentice (working title)
First, sorry this is not the start of a new trilogy in The
Magician Rebellion universe although I do plan to do another series in that
world at some point. Like Vampire Country, this story takes place in our world,
but it is more of a fun short story. It is about a young man who becomes an
apprentice to an eccentric stage magician who is known for his death-defying
act. The apprentice realizes that something is not quite right with his new
boss and sets out to find out what.
Since this is a short story, I am considering submitting it
to a science fiction/fantasy magazine, because it would best fit that format.
This story is very early in its development.
