Monday, July 7, 2014

What the Future Holds: Next Year, Next Decade, and My Whole Damn Life

Now that Sky-Island 1827-E is published I thought I'd go through what you fans can expect from me in the future.  I know most of you so far have come to my writing through THE KING  HENRY TAPES and that much more still will, but that's probably not going to stay the same in the years ahead.

Let's get this out there:  I'm not a one series writer who's going to pump out 40 King Henry books and then retire and have my as-of-yet-not-existent child pump out 40 MORE King Henry books.  More power to the authors that can do this and get a sense of total fulfillment, it's just not for me.  I've got a lot of stories in me and just creativity and ideas flowing out of my brain...some out of my asshole too, but mostly out of my brain!

You're going to get A LOT of King Henry books, but I'm not overstaying my welcome and even within that series I will try to keep reinventing and changing things up as necessary, like the School timeline finishing itself up in FM7 and the total change of pace from THE KING HENRY TAPES into THE MANCY WARS to cap the whole thing off.

But, it's going to end eventually, There is a Plan (and unlike Battlestar Galactica and Lost I'm not lying about it to keep you watching!).  Even in the meantime I will be taking breaks to work on other worlds and stories.  It's important to note that doing this doesn't actually affect my speed at writing King Henry novels.  It's not a zero sum game where in one world you will be getting two KH novels a year and in the other you'll be getting one.  What I've found actually happens is that in both worlds you still get the KH novel every 9-12 months, but instead of the other side novel coming out I'm just really fucking cranky and depressed that I can't focus in on writing half the time.

So all this being said, here's what the future looks like.

MY WHOLE DAMN LIFE

Here are the stories I plan to write by the time my eyes give out and my hands are decrepit and I'm farting in stores and no one complains about it because I'm so old.  Oh, how I look forward to those days...

*These names I'm giving are often vague or not final with only book estimates and genre-type because I'm a sneaky bastard that doesn't want to give a synopsis and have someone think "that's a great idea" and write it before I'm ready.

The Shinide Saga (5-10 Books)(Hyper-fantasy):  If I found out I was dying within the next five years, this would be the series I drop everything to write 24/7.  It's my first love, my baby, etc.  Why am I writing other stuff and not it?  Because I wanted to wait until I was ready to do it justice as an author.  I'm getting there but I'm not there yet.

The Five God Series (5 Books)(YA Epic Fantasy, Mage Coming of Age Story, Renaissance Era)

The Godborn World (One duology/One Trilogy/Possible Standalones)(Godpunk):  God of War meets Stargate meets Percy Jackson meets Bladerunner.

The Rii Enslavement (Duology)(Epic Fantasy, 1st Person):  Magic System revolves around emotions and their absence.

 The King Henry World (20 books possible)(12 Book THE KING HENRY TAPES)(3-5 Book THE MANCY WARS)(3 book THE DEAD WORLD):  Urban Fantasy into Epic Fantasy Morph.

The Prisoners Cycle (endless possibilities, multi-genre):  A series of standalone books all set in the same world but different...well, you'll see.  Sky-Island 1827-E and Gush are both in this "series".

Eat the Future (post-apoc, dystopian, big monster, neo-western standalone):  An extension of the world I created in Prime Pickings (which would be the first chapter).

Djinn (time-travel, thriller, horror, standalone):  a story about reliving high school that goes wrong.

The Next Decade

So yeah, I've got a lot of books in my head!  But what about the next decade?  Well, I plan to focus in on 3 of those worlds mentioned above.  By the time I turn 40 (yeah, I'm 30, it's not as terrifying as promised, mostly because I skipped all that marriage and divorce stuff to do the starving author thing) I believe THE KING HENRY TAPES will have been finished and I'll be part way into THE MANCY WARS.

I'm also looking at continuing THE PRISONERS CYCLE (plan to put up an About Page on this by the end of the year) which as I said includes Sky-Island 1827-E, a follow up book, and a trilogy set in that "world" as well as Gush + Gush sequel, and a few other stories with different characters.  The important thing to note with THE PRISONERS CYCLE, unlike the rest of everything I talk about, is that it's "possible" that they might be written.  It's the one thing I'm doing where it's all pay-to-play and something I'm taking one book at a time.

The 3rd series I plan to work on is the aforementioned GODBORN WORLD.  As to the name of "godborn" it's one of those things were you consider "should i be different and really creative" or should I just get lumped in with Mistborn or Dragonborn and all the other borns.  I decided there's more than enough creativity in the world to let the name be a little generic.

Which leads us into...

The Next Year

Finishing FM5 and Gush, starting the first GODBORN book (no title atm beside the stand-in of CHAINS) and FM6.

Pretty simple really (also a crap-ton of writing!).  I just wanted to write this to let you fans know I'm very committed to this author thing, I see it as my future and my life for a long time to come, it's what I've wanted to do since I was 12 and I'm lucky as hell that I get to live in the time period where Digital Publishing showed up to start a publishing revolution.

I know it's scary being a fan.  You love these worlds but really have no control over them.  An author can just faff about or get addicted to coke and pornstars or...other stuff.  Nothing you can do about it...beside writing Welf/KH slash fanfiction (please don't do this!).  So there you go, there's my plan for the years and years ahead of us.  Hopefully all of us make it to the end!  In the meantime, stick with me through this journey and we'll kick some ass and take some names together!

Now, because I've written this, here comes the alien invasion in 3...2...1...

17 comments:

  1. Just make sure you don't sign a deal with HBO until after you finish the series!

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  2. Oh, how I wish I had that problem!

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  3. Hi...
    A question, if I may? Obviously you publish as an indie writer via digital media, but do you have any plans for publishing physically? I only ask as I have a few friends who would love your books, but refuse to read anything other than paper...
    Cheers!

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  4. Getting around to doing some on-demand print versions through Amazon Createspace is something that's on the list. They just seem to keep getting pushed down the list because economically it's not anywhere near as important as writing and editing that next novel to get a pop on Amazon's bestseller algorithms. Also, because the editing situation with FM1 and FM2 was pretty flimsy compared to what I have now (and what I have now isn't even perfect just tolerable for that whiny perfectionist inside of me) I'll probably need to pay or beg some people to give them a look over before I put them to print.

    Or wait until some publisher throws me a million dollars for print only rights. After I get super famous. Which should happen any time now. A fortune cookie told me so.

    So TBD on when the Paper Heathens will be satisfied.

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    1. Cheers for the quick reply - sounds interesting, and glad it's not a definite no! I'll just have to keep trying to convince them in the meantime...

      Richard

      ps- If you're ever looking for picky fans to help proof-read, I'm sure there'd be plenty of volunteers...

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    2. Behind that door there be dragons!

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    3. Ah, but what would the world be without dragons...

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  5. Also, questions are always welcome!

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  6. Heck, I'll marry you myself if it'll make you more productive and give me early access...

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  7. So we have a godbourne identity crisis?

    ;)

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    1. It has a lot of different parts and ideas but a very clear style and world once you get into it. Will only take a couple chapters for readers to go "okay I get what this is" but describing it by reference takes about 5 other works of media. No easy "Pulp Fiction meets Harry Potter" here.

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  8. "Welf/KH slash fan fiction"--thanks for that image I really didn't want seared into my brain LOL...

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  9. OK! Definitely into The Prisoners Cycle after the ending to Sky-Island...

    Was not into it at first but damn! What a deeper story you have made for us...

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  10. Complete WTF to be honest...:) I left what appeared to be the first Amazon comment yesterday. 5*.

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