May 2023 Update

In this update I answer the following questions:

1. How is Book 4, The Knights Reborn, coming?

2. What happened to the more frequent blog updates and social media posts you promised?

3. What’s happening with the Youtube channel?

4. What’s happening with Hall of Mages?

1. First off, the update to book 4: The Knight’s Reborn is coming along nicely. I have completed another revision and am well into the third draft. And while much of it is coming into focus, I am positive that there will be at least one more rewrite after this one. I’m still shooting to have it out by the end of the year, but that will only happen if I can have it to the editor by the end of summer. So, hang on.

2. What happened to the more frequent blog updates I promised? As you may know, in the fall of 2022, I made a push to be more active on social media, to provide more frequent updates, and even recorded some videos to launch a Youtube channel that I will talk about in a moment. At the time, I acknowledged that this was hard for me because I’m reclusive by nature, and when I sit down to write, I want to work on my books not on blog posts or social media updates.

Well, the long and short of it is that I have been forced to surrender to my nature. At this stage of my life and career, it is just not in the cards. The problem was that when I would sit down to write, I would get a reminder that I had a blog post due, and I would end up working on that instead of my actual writing. And once I stopped getting the reminders to write the blogs or check in on social media, I would totally forget that was a thing for months at a time. So, rather than try to force it, I am just going to focus on my books. But I will still commit to not going dark for more than a few months at a time, so you at least get some indication of what’s happening, and when you might expect the next book. (That said, I wrote the first draft of this post six weeks ago, and then completely forgot about it until today [reminder to insert embarrassed shrug emoji here]).

3. So, what about my Youtube channel? Some of you know that I started a Youtube channel and posted the first 5 or 10 chapters of the audio version of the The Knights Dawning on it with the promise of more content on the channel in the future. Here too, I have failed you.

I actually did write and record a number of videos for the channel in several different formats, but I was never satisfied with any of the final products. What’s more, it was a tremendous time suck to write, record, and edit the videos. Which, once again, meant I was working on my books less in order to try to get the Youtube channel up and running.

Much like the promised social media posts and blog updates, I ultimately decided that it was not worth the trade-off. At the end of the year, I would much rather have another book in your hands than be maintaining active social media and Youtube accounts.

Now, just to be clear, that does not mean that I will never do anything with the Youtube channel; it just means that it is not a priority right now.

4. What’s happening with Hall of Mages? In a previous posts, I believe I mentioned the fact that I was alternating weeks between The Knight’s Reborn and Hall of Mages. That method was working for a while, but it also cut the progress down on Book 4 by half. I realized that the only hope I had of getting book 4 out this year was if I focused on it exclusively. As such, Hall has once again been put on the back burner.

Finishing book 4 will complete my Crusades Series, and represents a significant milestone in my writing career. I am anxious to get it out, and see what the landscape looks like at that point. It will be the first time since The Knights Dawning came out twelve years ago that I will have not have the weight of this series hanging over my head, and I cannot tell you how excited I am for that.

Anyway, thank you for hanging in there with me. More updates as events warrant … and as I remember to post them.