Writing through the holidays

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, the most magical time of the year—and for parents of three small children, it’s the busiest time as well. This week has been packed with all sorts of things, which means the writing has taken a backseat for the moment. Still, I’ve been managing to get a little work done, mostly in the early mornings.

I’m about 40% done with the rough AI draft of The Soulbond and the Lady, book 2 in the Rise of the Soulbond King Trilogy. I’ve also been working on the human draft of The Soulbond and the Sling, though progress has been slow (which is also why I haven’t been able to update the cover, or make a cover mock-up for The Soulbond and the Lady).

It took me only four days to write the prompts and generate the rough AI draft of The Soulbond and the Sling, which came to about 153k words. That was pretty wild. But the draft turned out to be a little too rough, which is part of the reason why it took so long to revise the AI draft and get it to a state where I was ready to move on to the human draft. So for The Soulbond and the Lady, I’m trying to be more careful. If I can fine tune the prompts to generate a much higher quality rough AI draft, it shouldn’t take nearly as much energy to revise it, which means that I can finish the AI draft of book 2 while I write the human draft of book 1.

I was hoping to finish the rough AI draft of The Soulbond and the Lady before Thanksgiving, but that didn’t happen, so now I’m hoping to finish it before Christmas. But I’ve currently put that WIP on hold so that I can finish the novella version of “Christopher Columbus: Treasure Hunter” in time to publish it in February of next year. I’m currently about 15% done with the AI revisions, and if things go well, I’ll have a finished AI draft by the end of the week, or early next week at the latest.

With the Christopher Columbus series, I’m experimenting with different forms of AI-assisted writing, leaning more into the discovery writing aspect of the creative process. So it might take longer as I figure it out. That’s frustrating, because it means slower writing progress, but by the end of it I’ll hopefully have learned a few more things about AI-assisted writing that will help out with future books. And even with how frustratingly slow it is, I am having quite a bit of fun with this WIP.

After Christmas, when I’ve hopefully finished both of these WIPs (at least through the AI draft phase), I plan to pick up The Unknown Sea again and work on that one until it’s DONE. I’m planning on a release date in March of next year, which might be a bit of a challenge given how crazy it is around here, but I’m really looking forward to finishing this one and getting it out into the world!

Unpublishing The Other Side of Reality

It’s been a good run, but I think it’s time to take this one down. It was always more of a fun side project, a cute little story written more for myself than for anyone else. It’s gotten to the point where I think I have too many free short story singles out, and I need to take a few of them down to make room for the new ones.

My next short story collection, Beyond World’s End, is scheduled to release in May 2022, and it will include this story. I was originally going to hold a couple of stories in reserve and never release them as short story singles, just to incentivize people to pick up the collection. But now, I think it will be better to reward my faithful followers by releasing all of the stories as free singles first.

With that said, I don’t want to have all of these stories out at the same time, so that the month before the collection comes out, a person can just download all of them for free with one click. So moving forward, I’ll be putting up and taking down these free singles fairly frequently, and never have all of them up at the same time together.

So yeah, if you want to pick up this one as a free short story single, now’s the time to do it. By the end of the week, it will be gone.

The Other Side of Reality: A Short Story

Good things are happening!

It’s been a while since I posted a general update here on the blog, and while I’ve been sharing regular updates to my mailing list, enough has been happening that I suppose I should let all the rest of you know what’s going on.

First, I decided to pull out a bunch of investment money and put it into my writing, in order to go full-time for the next few months (and hopefully for the forseeable future). I shared more about this on my newsletter. Basically, I rewrote my business plan and decided that my best way forward is to go all-in for the next few months, writing more books and growing my business. I have a plan, and if it works, I’ll be able to go full-time indefinitely.

Second—and this may seem to contradict the first—I got a job at the local used bookstore, Pioneer Book! I’ve been going to this bookstore for years, befriending the manager and several employees, and several months ago (before I decided to reinvest in my writing business) I dropped off a resume in the hopes of getting a job there. When I got the call, I wasn’t going to turn it down.

It’s a part-time, 20 hours per week job that fits in perfectly with my writing. It’s also a job where I get to work with books, and be around bookish people, so I’m sure there will be lots of opportunities to learn interesting things that will help as I build my own writing and publishing career. Basically, it’s the perfect day job for a writer, and I’ve really been enjoying it so far.

Writing-wise, I just finished Gunslinger to Earth, the third book in the Gunslingers trilogy, and I’m finishing up the revisions to send it to my editor hopefully in the next few weeks. My next WIP is Edenfall, and I’m hard at work on it now. The goal is to finish it by March, and publish it over the summer.

Publishing-wise, I’ve revamped the backmatter in my books again, with a new map for how everything connects to everything else. The biggest change is in my short stories, which aren’t mapped out here, but basically I’m going to focus on putting them into bundles, and have the singles point there. Eventually, I want to have only one or two singles for every bundle, with five to six stories per bundle. I have enough stories written to fill out four bundles, but a bunch of them are still out on submission, so it could take a while.

I’ve also been doing a lot more to build my email list, not just through Prolific Works but also through Bookfunnel, Story Origin, and MyBookCave. There is a method to the madness, and all of this fits into the wider plan. I’ve also updated the pricing on some of my books, and experimenting with AMS ads, though there’s not much to report on that front at the moment.

In short, I’ve been pretty busy. Most of my time and effort is going toward writing. I’ve got a very aggressive writing schedule for the next year, and hope to finish all of my trilogies before 2020, including the Genesis Earth trilogy and the Twelfth Sword trilogy. The way I have it planned out, if I can average 1600 words a day, I’ll be able to do that no problem.

As far as my personal life is concerned, I’ve been dating a really fantastic girl for the last few months and things are going very, very well. I’m not sure how much of that I should share, but you’ll probably hear more about it in the future, if not here on the blog, then definitely in my author’s notes and newsletter.

As of right now, 2019 is looking to be a fantastic year! I’m really looking forward to seeing what the rest of the year will bring, and I expect I’ll have lots of good things to share with you in the future. Take care, and thanks for reading!

Late December Update

It’s been a while since I posted a writing update on this blog, but seeing as I intend to blog a lot more actively in the coming year, I suppose I should start with an update.

First off, my current WIP. I’m making good progress on Gunslinger to Earth, and should finish it in early January. I’m also revising it as I go along, which means that it should be ready to send off to my editor by then as well. Right now, I’m planning for an April book release. So if you’re enjoying Gunslinger to the Galaxy, which I published just a couple of weeks ago, you’ll soon be able to read the thrilling conclusion to that trilogy as well.

That’s not the biggest thing I’ve been working on, though. The biggest thing would have to be rewriting my business plan in preparation for 2019. I’ve put a lot of work into it, and I think I’ve got it to the point where it needs to be, though I anticipate that I’ll be making a lot of other changes to it as the year progresses.

I can honestly say that I’ve built a business that can sustain itself. The problem for the last few years is that it’s not yet at the point where it can sustain me. But with the perspective I’ve gained from rewriting my business plan, I think that I can change that. The trouble is that it’s going to require a massive investment of time and energy, more than just money.

To make a long story short, I’ve sold off some investments and put it into the business so that I can go full-time for the next six months. If I can grow my writing income six-fold within that time, then I can keep writing full-time indefinitely. This is a huge leap for me, and I have no idea if it will work, but it’s better to have a bad plan than no plan at all. If I fail, I’m sure I’ll learn a lot of valuable lessons from the experience. And if I succeed, then I’ll basically be living the dream, at least until that next tier of success. Onward and upward!

What this means for you is that you can expect to see a lot more writing from me in the future. I’m also working on my short fiction game, which I plan to blog about soon. Currently I’ve got 40 active submissions, and since I plan to write a new short story every month, that number will grow accordingly. Expect to see some more short story publications in the coming months and years, hopefully a couple of high-profile ones.

Ideally, I want to get to the point where I always have a novel up for preorder. That means one new novel each quarter, or four novels per year. Besides that, I’ve got a large backlog of short stories and a few bundles that I intend to publish soon. Also, the blog.

Lots of stuff coming out. You can expect to see a lot more from me in the coming year. The best way to keep up with it all is to subscribe to my email list, so if you haven’t done that already, be sure to do so. Thanks for reading, and see you all next year!

June Update

Greetings, humans! I am alive. I’m actually doing quite well right now. Lots of stuff going on behind the scenes, and it all seems to be coming together quite nicely.

First, Victors in Liberty is now up for preorder, with a release date of July 22nd. This means that the Sons of the Starfarers series is now officially complete! The books have all been written, the plot threads have all been wrapped up (except for one or two, in case I ever decide to write another story), the edits are in, and the final versions have all been uploaded. Four and a half years went into this, and now it’s DONE!

I wrote a lengthy author’s note where I talked about the ups and downs I went through while writing this series. Basically, Sons of the Starfarers was the series that really disciplined me, turning me from a write-when-you-can, publish-when-you-feel-like-it kind of writer to one who makes and keeps deadlines and holds to a consistent release schedule.

Midway through writing this series, I really didn’t know if it was worth it to continue, but I decided to keep with it because I’d made a promise to my readers and I was going to keep it, even if there were only a few dozen of you. As it turns out, there’s quite a few more, for which I am very grateful. If you’ve been waiting since 2014 to read this series, I’m happy to report that your wait will soon be over.

As for my next WIP, I’m about a third of the way through Gunslinger to the Galaxy with a deadline of June 30th. It’s going to be tough to keep that deadline, because I’m moving before the end of the month and don’t yet know where my next place is going to be. Nothing too serious, it’s just that my contract is coming up so it’s time to move on. I’m toying with the idea of buying a National Parks pass and living out of a tent for the next two months, but in all reality I’ll probably just get a summer contract here in the Provo/Orem area. After that, who knows?

My plans are to write Gunslinger to the Galaxy and Gunslinger to Earth over the summer, and publish them both before the end of the year. A couple of years ago, this would have been a tall order, but I’ve reworked my writing process since then to the point where I don’t need multiple drafts to write clean copy. That’s partly the reason why I haven’t been blogging much recently. I’ll do a post on it sometime, if you guys are interested.

Once the Gunslingers trilogy is complete, I plan to finish Edenfall and The Stars of Redemption next. That’s another promise I need to keep to my readers. I don’t feel quite so bad, since Genesis Earth works well as a standalone, but I do need to finish the trilogy and I plan to do that before the end of next year.

On the publishing front, I’m doing a whole bunch of things behind the scenes, but the most visible thing you’ll probably see next is paperback releases for most of my books. It’s been a long time coming, and it will probably be a few months before it happens, but I plan to get those out before the end of the summer.

That’s pretty much it for now. Thanks for reading, and here’s where you can get Victors of Liberty:

Victors in Liberty

$9.99eBook: $2.99Audiobook: $8.99

Author: Joe Vasicek
Series: Sons of the Starfarers, Book 9
Genres: Action & Adventure, Military, Science Fiction, Space Opera
Tag: 2018 Release

As Gulchina's forces bombard Edenia II from orbit, Mara Soladze and the Deltana brothers rush to the planet's aid. Trapped on the surface, Reva finds an unlikely ally—one who proves to be a game changer for them all.

More info →

$1 off the ebook with coupon code: BUY DIRECT

FREE ebook when you buy the audiobook direct!

April update

Sorry to go dark for so long. I’ve been sick off and on for the last two months, first with a sinus infection, then with a lung infection, and lately with a persistent stomach flu. Thankfully, I’ve been functional through all of it, but not at 100%, which is why I’ve neglected the blog.

I have been writing, though. I’m currently about a third of the way through Victors in Liberty, and should finish it within the next few weeks. I’m also revising it as I go along, so as to have a publishable final draft. We’re still on track for a July release date.

In the last few weeks, I’ve been crunching a lot of book sales numbers and formulating a better business plan. The goal is to make the writing profitable enough to pay myself more than sweatshop wages. I think I’ve figured out a way to get there before the end of this year.

I also recently discovered Jordan Peterson, and have been listening to many of his lectures while doing mindless chop-wood carry-water tasks. He’s an incredible guy. One of the last few sane and reasonable people in the world with a large enough platform to counteract the constant assault of insanity that passes for today’s news cycle.

I’ve also published a double novel bundle for Bringing Stella Home and Heart of the Nebula. I originally published it exclusively on Kobo, to get around Amazon’s price matching policy so I could run useful promotions with KWL. But the Kobo promotions use coupon codes now, which means there’s no reason not to make this title available everywhere.

Nothing Found

I’m also experimenting a lot with my email list, trying out a new style for my newsletter and cycling through promotions more regularly. Makes a lot more work, since Amazon won’t make a book free unless you price match it first, but hey it’s not as bad as digging ditches.

Lots of other stuff going on behind the scenes, which I’d rather not get into just yet. When there’s significant movement, I’ll be sure to let you know.

I am so ready to finish the Sons of the Starfarers series. It’s been difficult to write at times, but I’m excited with how the last book is turning out and think it will provide an excellent ending to a story that has turned out better than I expected it to. Really looking forward to get it out there.

That’s just about it for now. Don’t worry about me: life is good and I’m still writing.

February Update

So much stuff going on behind the scenes here.

First, Sons of the Starfarers is coming along right on schedule. A Queen in Hiding (Book 7) is now up for preorder, and An Empire in Disarray (Book 8) is with my editor. Should be up for preorder in the next few weeks, with a release date of May 18th.

I’ve made a few changes to my publishing schedule for the year. Sons of the Starfarers is still on track for release dates in March, May, and June. I’ve switched up some of the short stories, though, and decided to focus on finishing the Gunslingers trilogy before I work on anything else. Both of those books (Gunslinger to the Galaxy and Gunslinger to Earth) should be out before the end of the year.

I’d rather have one complete trilogy than three partially completed ones, which is where things stand right now. The first book, Gunslinger to the Stars, has done modestly well for a standalone, and it was so much fun to write that I’m sure the sequels will be as well. I could use a fun project to lighten things up a bit.

The goal is still to release a new book (and/or rerelease an old one) every month this year, and I’m very much still on track to do that.

On a slightly different note, I’m considering whether or not to start a Patreon account. The goal is to set up a small supplementary income stream that enables me to publish more books without taking too much time away from the writing. I still have a lot of research to do, but some of the benefits I’m considering include digital ARCs and entry into a character naming lottery.

What do you think? Should I start a Patreon? Let me know what you think by filling out this short survey.

Other than that, it’s mostly just a bunch of little stuff and adjustments here and there. Data crunching, marketing analysis, and a lot of small and incremental improvements that don’t warrant mention (yet).

Early January Update

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

Patriots in Retreat now up for preorder!

For those of you who have been waiting for the next Sons of the Starfarers book, I have good news! Book 6, Patriots in Retreat, is now up for preorder and scheduled to release on January 19th, 2018. Check it out!

Patriots in Retreat

$9.99eBook: $2.99

Author: Joe Vasicek
Series: Sons of the Starfarers, Book 6
Genres: Military, Science Fiction, Space Opera
Tag: 2018 Release

Gulchina's betrayal has all but sealed the fate of the Outworld Confederacy. As world after world falls before the Gaian Imperial onslaught and the crew of the Merope-7 take losses of their own, a young Imperial agent must decide what she's truly fighting for.

More info →

$1 off the ebook with coupon code: BUY DIRECT

FREE ebook when you buy the audiobook direct!

Book 7, A Queen in Hiding, is with the editor right now and should be up for preorder soon as well, with a release date in March 2018. If all goes well, book 8, An Empire in Disarray, should be out in May, and book 9, Victors in Liberty—the final book in the series—should be out in July.

Thanks for reading!

Sorry for dropping off the face of the Earth

So this blog has been silent for a while—basically, ever since I said that the blog would be the last thing to get up to speed when I’m back to 100%.

Don’t worry about me, I’m doing just fine. Right now, I’m finishing up A Queen in Hiding and getting it ready to send out to my editor. I’ve struggled with this book so much, but it’s finally up to the somewhat ridiculous standards that I set for myself. Should be up for preorder soon.

Which brings me to Sons of the Starfarers. As I’ve said before, my goal is to publish the last four books in the series by the end of July 2018. Here are the publication dates that I’ve set:

Patriots in Retreat: 19 January 2018
A Queen in Hiding: 16 March 2018
An Empire in Disarray: 18 May 2018
Victors in Liberty: 20 July 2018

This is a slighly terrifying schedule for me, considering that I haven’t written the last two books yet. But I’ve outlined An Empire in Disarray quite thoroughly and should (fingers crossed) be able to put it out in the next forty days.

Lots of behind the scenes stuff going on to streamline my writing process. If it works the way I’m hoping it will work, I should be able to publish two or even three times as many books each year as I am right now. It would take several blog posts to give you the full run-down, but it basically comes down to writing clean first drafts and structuring the story before I write it. Still a lot of experimentation left to do, though, before I’m confident in this new method.

Starting next week, I hope to get the blog up and running once again with daily posts. There’s an awesome new YouTube series by the guys over at Extra Credits, and I definitely have things I want to say about it. Might make it into a regular thing. Also, a bunch of other stuff that I wanted to blog about but never really did.

Lastly, Patriots in Retreat is up for preorder right now! See, I told you there was stuff happening behind the scenes. Expect a lot more in the days and weeks to come!

Patriots in Retreat

When all else is lost, the bonds of war become a cause all their own.

Order Now!

About the Book

When all else is lost, the bonds of war become a cause all their own.

It is the Outworlds’ darkest hour. Gulchina’s betrayal has eliminated the Outworld Confederacy’s only strategic advantage in their war for independence. As the full force of the Gaian Imperial Navy bears down on them, defeat is all but inevitable.

Mara Soladze fully expected to lose the war. It is not her own life that she fears for, however, but the lives of her men. As world after world falls before the Imperial onslaught, those fears may soon be realized.

No commander is ever fully prepared to watch their men make the ultimate sacrifice, but that may no longer be avoidable in

SONS OF THE STARFARERS
BOOK VI: PATRIOTS IN RETREAT

Details

Author: Joe Vasicek
Series: Sons of the Starfarers, Book 6
Genres: Military, Science Fiction, Space Opera
Tag: 2018 Release
Publication Year: January 2018
Length: Short novel
List Price: $9.99
eBook Price: $2.99

Order Now

$1 off the ebook with coupon code: BUY DIRECT

FREE ebook when you buy the audiobook direct!

Joe Vasicek

Joe Vasicek fell in love with science fiction and fantasy when he read The Neverending Story as a child. He is the author of more than twenty books, including Genesis Earth, Gunslinger to the Stars, The Sword Keeper, and the Sons of the Starfarers series. As a young man, he studied Arabic at Brigham Young University and traveled across the Middle East and the Caucasus Mountains. He lives in Utah with his wife and two apple trees.

Other Books in the "Sons of the Starfarers"

Captives in Obscurity

A Queen in Hiding

An Empire in Disarray

Victors in Liberty

The Complete Sons of the Starfarers

Some of the links in the page above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. You will not receive any additional charge. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.