Update Time:
Brightness is still going strong on Amazon and Kindle. If you’ve read it, thank you for your support and please leave feedback on Amazon, or just talk about it with your friends, on Facebook, wherever. Feel free to point anyone who wants to know more to the blog; sometimes there is more information available here than anywhere else.
The Dungeon is still on track for an early summer release. We are through the editing process and are now working on making it pretty: page design, cover art, all those things that grab your attention in Barnes and Noble.
I’ve changed a few things around with the YA series. Its overall title has changed, and the first book has had a minor word swap in the title. Waking Light, Book 1 in The Chosen Cycle is complete through a first and second edit. I’ve turned it over to my unpaid but very-much-appreciated critical reader wife for her to apply the red pen of doom, and once it’s passed her criteria, I’ll begin looking for representation for it. With any luck, that will begin around the end of March.
I’m about 28,000 words into Depths of Darkness, which will be the second book in The Chosen Cycle.
The Labyrinth (working title), the sequel to The Dungeon, is about half-way finished, and I would like to have it complete by the end of the summer, so that we can start the process of getting it on the market for a release next year.
Project: Heritage is sitting complete and awaiting the loving pen-stroke of Jill as well. Once that’s done, I can see about finding it a publisher. I may wait a bit to dive into it fully, since it will be the first part of a trilogy.
What else?
The Richards’ story–Michael, Nicole, Sarah, Karie, and Sophie will be continued. That’s an absolute promise. But as many of my friends and family know, those three girls are based off my own precious children. I like to think being with them, seeing how they interact and hearing how they think makes me better at describing them believably in a book. The next part of their story takes place a couple of years after the events of Brightness, so while I’m working on plans and the storyline, I don’t expect to really jump back in to their world until 2020 or so. They won’t be forgotten, I can promise you that. I have big plans for little Sophie and her sisters that go far beyond what Azazel hinted at toward the end of Brightness. Their story will run through four books, though the fourth will be a stand-alone novel called Death Watch, which will provide a finale to the Richards’ story, as well as (hopefully) provide a good story that gives new meaning to the concept of how the sins of the father are carried down through the generations. For the record, Death Watch has been started, but don’t expect to see it for a while.
Plans within plans, so many plans.
We’ll all be introduced to a new multinational cooperation in The Dungeon whose tendrils will extend far beyond the scope of that book and its sequel. Virtuality (working title) will continue exploring the bounds of what is possible with an unlimited budget and no moral compass in a bid to increase power and influence. Expect to see some familiar faces from The Dungeon and The Labyrinth return to continue their efforts to stop Ian Magellan.
There are other ideas floating around in my head. Some have made it onto my laptop and have concrete writing around them, others are nagging gnats buzzing in my ear that won’t stop until I put some effort into them. Gotta love those gnats though. Those ideas that won’t go away make the best stories later.
Look for the next update towards the end of March/early April. Hopefully by then I’ll have a concrete date of release for The Dungeon, and can maybe include a preview of other upcoming works.
Thank you for your support.
Rob Horner 