Relief, lots of relief on finally finishing this one. I started writing "Sky-Island" (then only named "Rockets") in July 2011. That period of my life was one where I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with myself writing wise. Indies were become a thing, I'd thrown "The Betrothal" out there just to see what the process was like (poor, poor, mistreated Betrothal), but still wasn't sure if I should commit to the grand new experiment in publishing.
"The Foul Mouth and the Fanged Lady" was in editing and not wanting to get started on FM2 without the first being published or picked up by an agent or SOMETHING (strangely enough I never even bothered to send FM1 to an agent and took the full Indie plunge a few months later) I had to come up with a few other novels to work on.
I have quite a few grand series' planned in my life, books and worlds and characters even more important to me than King Henry, but I knew I wasn't ready for them. I wasn't experienced enough to do them justice. So instead I came up with 5 small plots of books that were part writing experiment, part challenge, and partly drawn from mashed together dreams. I figured this would make me a better writer and that I could work on these novels without "locking me in" to a specific course.
One of those books was "Sky Island 1827-E".
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| So yeah...already changed and simplified the cover. |
Along with a story about a very violent tree, a girl who can run on water, and a man who can hop from dream to dream, "Sky-Island" was born as the story of a company of soldiers that spent their days on a small island watching rockets fly overhead...before the enemy attacked.
It's still that at its heart. But much more. It's also a tale of religious divide, of what makes a hero or if there even are heroes, of point of view, and of course...KILLER ROBOTS.
It's been a long 3 years for a short novel (250 pages), mostly because once I took the plunge I was super into that King Henry Price guy and everything else got pushed to the side. But now King Henry is firmly established and I understand him to a degree that's probably not healthy, so I have time to return to those 5 small novels and get them out of my brain (I have so many stories in my brain it's really getting crowded in there).
If you like twist and turns, mystery, some SERIOUS world building, and punches to the gut, then you'll enjoy "Sky-Island." Or at least survive it.
Of course the first draft is just the start and we have editing and more editing and typo hell and beta reading in front of us, so don't expect the book immediately. July-September is probably the best estimate for its release. As always with Indie releases, you can't tell how quickly or how long certain aspects will take. If you need to change something you need to do it all yourself. If the beta readers say "it's all good" then it can be published the next day.
As for what I plan next, I'm looking to finishing FM5's school story (King Henry and Plutarch get off to a rough start) and to writing "Gush", which is about that girl who can run on water that I mentioned.
