The holidays are over. Blergh.
I don’t generally do well when my routine gets broken up by outside forces, which is why this blog has fallen by the wayside for the last week or so. I’m also not very good at creating structure in my life where none exists, so during times like the holidays I don’t tend to do very well. This is definitely a skill that I need to work on.
In any case, the holidays are over, which means it’s time to get back to work. Thank goodness!
I am about 10,000 words from finishing my current WIP, An Empire in Disarray. With the work on my friends’ basement finished and my roommate starting school in Salt Lake today, there shouldn’t be any more interruptions between now and the end of next week. This bodes well.
When that’s done, I’ll jump right into work on Victors in Liberty. I’ve got to admit, there are other projects I’d really like to work on right now, but finishing Sons of the Starfarers takes priority.
The series was supposed to be finished way back in 2015. But I underestimated the volume of work I’d taken on—and that was before I got a girlfriend. I fell behind on my writing as the relationship got really serious, and then we broke up, which didn’t help with productivity either.
Long story short, I did a lot of things wrong back in 2014. But I learned from my mistakes, and I think my books are better because of it. So instead of finishing up Sons of the Starfarers in 2015, I’m finishing it now in 2018. And then I’m moving on to other projects.
Edenfall is at the top of that list. It’s been years since I started the Genesis Earth trilogy, which is another ball that I’ve dropped. Genesis Earth does stand alone, but I’ve been promising to finish the trilogy since I published it in 2011, and judging from the reviews (as well as the slow but remarkably steady trickle of sales), this is a WIP that deserves to get priority.
One thing I’m really trying to do this year is to get better at structuring things: my writing, my publishing and marketing efforts, my daily routine, etc. Towards that end, I’ve put together a publishing schedule for 2018. Here it is as it stands at the beginning of the new year:
- JANUARY — Patriots in Retreat (Sons of the Starfarers, Book 6)
- FEBRUARY — The Janus Anomaly: A Short Story
- MARCH — A Queen in Hiding (Sons of the Starfarers, Book 7)
- APRIL — Time and Space in Amish Country: A Short Story
- MAY — An Empire in Disarray (Sons of the Starfarers, Book 8)
- JUNE — Lizzie-99XT: A Short Story
- JULY — Victors in Liberty (Sons of the Starfarers, Book 9)
- AUGUST — Edenfall (Genesis Earth Trilogy, Book 2)
- SEPTEMBER — Sholpan
- OCTOBER — The Sword Bearer (The Twelfth Sword Trilogy, Book 2)
- NOVEMBER — In the Beginning: A Short Story
- DECEMBER — Gunslinger to the Galaxy (Gunslingers Trilogy, Book 2)
Lots of book 2s and finishing series. I suppose you could say this is the year where I start to finish what I’ve started.
And while the schedule may seem a bit daunting, the first four books are already ready to go, with Patriots in Retreat and A Queen in Hiding already up for preorder. Of the ones that are left, half are already written. So even though it seems ambitious, it’s actually quite doable, even if something crazy happens and I end up eloping to Mongolia before the end of the summer.
So that’s what I’m up to. I’ll get back to blogging as I can, but my first priority is writing, followed closely by publishing. Lots of behind the scenes stuff happening which I don’t have time to get into right now.
Take care, and thanks for reading!
Joe
