This year has largely sucked for me. I'm not a whiner, but...I could not catch a break. Was sick a ton, had two months lost into edit hell chasing after typos, faced down a huge writing block in September, had a family member move in with me for 3 months, Mom quit her job and had a cancer scare (she's fine), Dad retired and had a heart scare (he's fine too).
I even found my first gray hair a couple days ago. Merry fucking Christmas. Jury duty in a couple weeks. Shit in your champagne, New Years.
But that's all okay. 3 things that have happened this year make it okay.
One: the fans. You guys are pretty cool with the emails, tweets, and reviews. You've also gone from about 50 to over 500 strong in 2012. That's just...WOW. If THE KING HENRY TAPES sees the same growth in 2013...I could do this for a living and pump out a couple books a year for the rest of my life. That's been all I've wanted since I was twelve and...would be awesome.
Two: FM2 was finished six months ahead of schedule and despite all my fears that people might not realize it's a book about failure and instead call me a failure, nothing of the sort has manifested. Everyone seems to dig T-Bone, Vega, and the Coyotes. Huzzah.
Three: This December was my best writing month of the year and felt the best in years. It was...amazing. I felt an ease of writing and a joy I haven't felt since I came up with King Henry in the first place. I wrote 20k in 9 days, it's almost all I did. Before this December, with the block in September, I'd feared I'd lost something and would just have to plow through for the foreseeable future but...noooope. Raley still got it.
So recapping: Sucky Year, But Bright Future
Going forward where are we at?
According to the status updates FM3 is 63% finished. This is probably misleading. Not way misleading, but a little bit. When I first started writing it, I guessed it would be about 100k words long. Where I'm at now, with 10 chapters written and 7 left to go, I feel that's probably short. So if you see the status update hit 100% or even 101% that doesn't mean it's done, it will probably take 110k, maybe even 120k to finish this book.
Also where I'm at now, 10 chapters written and 7 left to go...FM3 is going to be awesome. I should probably downplay it but I'm just super excited about this one. This is the end of the First Act, where I can take the curtain and pull it back to give you a peek at what's really coming. If you only knew what I knew...
Release Date? Please? Raley? Please? If I'm a good boy or a good girl? Please with sugar on top!?!?!?
Not gonna do it...okay...sometime in 2013.
What else is going on?
I'm also working on KH Short 4, the Welf POV Short. This one is going to be a little thicker than the other shorts and will matter a bit more to the School Timeline than the usual slice-of-life type stuff I give you. The plan is for it to release a month before FM3 as a lead in, I might attach a sample chapter to it for FM3, not sure if the editing will be done or not by then.
KH Short 4 is going to be the last short story I put out for a few years. I'm very much a book focused author and limiting myself to 1/20th or 1/10th the pages really drives me crazy each time I do it.
Side projects?
"Foliage" has been shelved for now. I still think it's a really cool idea, a great secondary world, and a good IP, but maybe not made for the written word. Eventually if I ever have the pull it would make a good animated film, or even better a video game franchise. If you ever hear me talking about Trees, Chameleons, and Snails again you'll know it's made a comeback.
"Rockets" is still planned. I play with it, think about it, and do edits on what I've already written occasionally. I'll probably take a break from King Henry after FM3 and put a few more chapters into it. It's just a fun action-adventure, war story with lots of twist and turns. I call it Steam Opera because it's pretty much a mix between Steampunk and Space Opera. It and FM4 will probably be published around the same time period. Whether either of those books sneak their way into 2013, I can't be sure.
Conclusion
I hope you all are looking forward to this year as much as I am. I'm really excited about how these novels are working out and about how I'm starting to see real growth in the fanbase and in my sales. There will be plenty of King Henry Price to spice it up for you and maybe a little Boomworm too...