Good News, Bad News

Good News:  This is my most productive writing month in 3 years.

Bad News:  To be this productive I've almost completely removed the internet from my life, so tweets, fan mail, and all those lovely things will take me longer to respond to, if I ever get to them at all.

Good News:  I just hit 50k yesterday and so far I'm insanely happy with how the novel is going.

Bad News:  FM4 will be longer than I originally expected, now estimated at 21 chapters and 120k words.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to return to my writing bubble...it's so nice in the bubble...

FM2 and Failure By Design

Spoilers for the KHT, don't read if you aren't up to date.

***

Even though I check far less often than I used to when I only had a handful of reviews and every single one seemed like a new and wondrous thing, I do check in on the little balls of anxiety inducing torture from time to time, since they remain a good reflection on the most vocal parts of a fan base.

FM1 breaks down to about 90% loving the creativity of the world and KH's unique voice and about 10% being confused by the double timeline and not liking the cursing in the book.  FM3 still receives universal praise, something that makes me very happy given how it really was the "Unveiling of Things to Come" for the series.

FM2, however, is the beast I wish to tackle.  I've seen some comments on "sophomore slump" and complaints that it ends very quickly, that it really comes out of nowhere, and it makes you feel like you got pulled up short.

Yeah.  It does.

Totally the emotion I was trying to drag out of you guys with writing the book.

FM2 is a novel about success and about failure and about how we handle them.  I wanted you to feel exactly how King Henry felt by doing the "civilized" thing and making peace.  The purpose of the twin stories were also to show that as a child King Henry was correct the entire time while everyone doubted him, yet he squandered being "right" and manage to accomplish nothing more than the wrongest and most quickly caught up of his classmates.  While as an adult, the dumb bastard was COMPLETELY 100% wrong about what was going on.  He made a huge mess out of everything, but...by coming to his senses he was able to still get something out of the situation:  an agreement with Vega.

So it's an odd thought:  if a book is about failure and you feel it failed, then is it a brilliant book or a bad one?  When I was just a reader I often thought of success through the prism of how pumped up or amazed the book made me feel, that feeling of the high we all want from entertainment, yet now as an author who went through the experience of writing FM2, I do wonder...

I guess in the end it's up to the fans but I just wanted to have my say about my thoughts when it came to writing the novel and how I viewed it going in.  It was frustrating for me too.  Don't think I didn't want to get to the brawl being KH and Vega in book 2?  Hell yeah, I wanted it.  But I held us all back to induce the feelings I was aiming for.  I even cut out originally planned sections of the novel to make it shorter and feel more frustratingly incomplete.  As some have pointed out:  there are no actually werecoyotes in the novel about werecoyotes.  Why?  Frustrating, ain't it?

Why not give you the rush?  I am the guy who made up King Henry Price...so I feel contrary at times.  The lows and the frustrations can enhance the highs after all and in that way FM2 proves a very important step in King Henry's journey and will affect events moving forward.

Maybe you should all just consider this my declaration of MUAHAHAHA, I GET TO TORTURE YOU FROM TIME TO TIME.

Asylum Staff List

Some people mentioned they were having trouble recalling some of the more minor staff members while beginning FM3 so I put this together really quick to possibly jog your damaged little minds...or just to confuse you more.

ASYLUM STAFF LIST

Name – Asylum Position (Mancy Type, Level)  

THE LEARNING COUNCIL 

Maudette “The Lady of the Lake” Lynch – Dean (Hydromancer, Ultra) 

Delores Dingle – Head of Mathematics, King Henry’s Math Teacher (Faunamancer, Intra) 

Christopher Erikson – Head of Languages (Cryomancer, Ultra) 

Phineas Farraday – Head of Sciences (Mentimancer, Ultra) 

Benedict Massey – Head of History (Geomancer, Intra) 

Morgana Lancaster – Head of Physical Education, Faceshifter Teacher (Corpusmancer, Ultra) 

Keith Gullick – Head of Elementalism, King Henry’s Elementalism Teacher (Floromancer, Ultra) 

Mordecai Root – Head of Physical Theories, Bonegrinder Teacher (Necromancer, Ultra) 

Antigone Hyde – Head of Mental Theories, Winddancer Teacher (Aeromancer, Ultra) 

Rudolph Meyer – Head of Electives (Faunamancer, Ultra) 

Ceinwyn Dale – Head of Recruiting (Aeromancer, Ultra) 

Russell Quilt – Head of Testing/Non-Voting (Mentimancer, Intra) 

Nigel Rowland – Firestarter Teacher (Pyromancer, Ultra) 

Paul “Plutarch” Nixon – Artificer Teacher (Geomancer, Ultra) 

Leander Marlow – Riftwalker Teacher (Hydromancer, Ultra) 

Noelle Clarke – Stormcaller Teacher (Electromancer, Ultra) 

Alberto Cervantes – Beaconkeeper Teacher (Spectromancer, Ultra) 

Rin Yukimura – Winterwarden Teacher (Cryomancer, Ultra) 

Tristan McBee – Shadeshifter Teacher (Sciomancer, Ultra) 

Leslie Van Houten – Forestplanter Teacher (Flormancer, Ultra) 

Wolfgang Von Welf – Beasttalker Teacher (Faunamancer, Ultra) 

Yuri Jakovic – Mindmaster Teacher (Mentimancer, Ultra) 

 OTHER STAFF 

Evelyn Strange – School Doctor, Head of the Infirmary (Hydromancer, Ultra) 

Kumiko Ambrose – King Henry’s History and History of Elementalism Teacher (Geomancer, Intra) 

Jethro “Jet” Smith – King Henry’s Languages Teacher (Necromancer, Intra) 

Nevada Slaton – King Henry’s Science Teacher (Cryomancer, Intra) 

Harvey Pride – King Henry’s P.E. Teacher (Corpusmancer, Ultra) 

Fines Samson – King Henry’s Survival and Defense Teacher, King Henry’s Elementalism as a Weapon Teacher, Partially Retired (Sciomancer, Ultra) 

Audrey Foster – King Henry’s Theory of Anima Teacher (Aeromancer, Intra) 

Rainbow Greenbrier – King Henry’s Elementalism as Art Teacher (Spectromancer, Intra) 

Wilbur Fisk – King Henry’s Theory of Elemental Prophecy Teacher (Faunamancer, Ultra)

I might also be doing a "Dramatis Personae" for the Present part of the story to help out there.

I absolutely refuse to use the usual big publisher series method of spending the first 50-100 pages filling in past details about every little character interaction throughout the series.  I hate reading stuff like that, it's filler, it slows the book down, it assumes I'm stupid.  I'm sure I'd hate writing it even more, so I'm going to do the horrible thing of assuming my audience is smart and has a decent memory and just give you these lists as a quick reminder/check up guide.

July Writing Update

May 10th we released FM3 to the world (or at least the internet, which is frankly better than the world) and it has so far received universal praise as being the best in the series .  Which means...I'm doing something right.  But I need to keep doing it right, so here's where we're at and where we're going.

When is the next King Henry book, FM4, coming out?
Not this year!  I know you fans want it yesterday, but I have to write it first and writing King Henry actually takes a good amount of time.  Some of this is from me having to "wear" the character while I write--this is a ton more difficult than just writing something in 3rd Person POV, especially with a character as complex and difficult as King Henry.

The rest of it is that as an Indie writer without the whole team behind me, I have two modes.  I have Writing Mode and I have Editing Mode.  One is hopeful and creative, one is extremely cynical and so so happy to tear down dreams.  When I go into Editing Mode to get a book out to you fans the instant after the first draft is done (relatively speaking), it really hurts my productivity for three to even four months.

So even if I could write FM4 in a flash and have it out to you lot in December, I'm not going to.  I want to be in Writer Mode for awhile, disappear into the laboratory, and then I'll come back with a bunch of awesome stuff when it's ALL (or mostly) done.

What's the Awesome Stuff then?
FM4, FM5, and the Steampunk novel I've been calling "Rockets" but which will have another title eventually revealed.  The goal, and I might fail but I'm trying not to, is to have all three out next year (2014).

Why do it like this for FM4 and FM5?
FM4 and FM5 were originally the other way around in the series order when I first outlined the whole thing, but early in working on FM3 I switched them when I realized it would make Val and King Henry's relationship be less chaotic if some things happened the other way around.  What I haven't decided about the switch yet, is whether the School Timeline should switch with them.

So what I'm thinking about doing is writing the Shop Timeline for FM4 and FM5 and THEN going back and doing the School Timeline for each book once I have a feel for how the stories interconnect.

In case you're wondering, this is why authors don't write complicated multi-timeline stuff and instead just pump out half-naked vampire boytoy and bastard boy with a sword stuff for you.  Woe is me!

I'm not sure I care about "Rockets" yet, but you're going to tell me about "Rockets" so just tell me about it.
"Rockets" is about half done now.  It's set in a completely new secondary fantasy world I've created.  It's a Steampunk variant called Dieselpunk with WW1/WW2 tech levels.  There's a magic in the world called The Path.  There's automation soldiers called Clockers.  There's skyships and landships and interceptors and so many fun toys.

"Rockets" itself is a very small focus action-adventure/war novel but the world will likely be one I return to in the future (5 possible books so far).  The world itself is influenced by Star Wars, Firefly, and Battlestar Galactica, but of course, Steampunk instead of SciFi, and with my own twists on everything.

I'm really happy with the chapters I have so far and think it's a pretty good roller coaster ride.  It will probably be coming out between FM4 and FM5.

Speaking of FM4 and FM5, can a fanatic get a hint?
While I first think of THE KING HENRY TAPES as one big story split up 12 times to make publication easier, the first half of the series does work well as two trilogies.  But not in the way you think as one trilogy and then a sequel trilogy but as a trilogy connected to a trilogy of sequels (say that 10 times fast for bonus points, also I haven't had coffee this morning, give me a break).  I don't really view FM2 as FM1's sequel.  Instead, it works better if you think of FM1, FM2, and FM3 all as the beginning book to their own storyline that just happens to have many of the same characters and the same world.  FM4 is FM1's sequel.  FM5 is FM2's sequel.  And FM6 is FM3's sequel.

This isn't to say they're contained.  The stories mix and mash more this time around.  And FM7 to FM12 will just be a big jumble of Crazy Awesomeness I promise, or Awesome Crazyness, whatever you prefer.

But yeah, FM4 will bring back the vampires...with a revengence.

In Conclusion
I'm going to be writing for the rest of the year, not editing.  FM4, FM5, and "Rockets" are all in the pipe and should be good for 2014.  I'll try to update you guys at least once more this year on my progress (or lack of it).

Thanks for the Reviews
Also, a special thanks to everyone who has reviewed my books!  It really helps out with spreading the word and I thank you for the support and for your time and thoughts.  We actually just hit 100 reviews on Amazon spread across all the King Henry books and shorts, believe it or not.

Cool.  Cool cool cool.

King Henry's Motto British Style

I got bored...