New Year, New Plans

So far, 2020 is being good to me.

No, I haven’t kept my New Year’s resolution, but that’s okay. I didn’t make one.

My one goal coming into the new year was to get Night Zero: Second Day finished.

Mission accomplished. Coming in at just over 130,000 words, NZ2 is done. First draft, complete. First edit pass, complete. Now, a few lucky beta readers are about to have it dropped into their laps. After I receive their feedback, the book will enter a final edit and layout phase. The goal is to have it available on ebook and in paperback by summer. If everything goes as planned, it will release on the 1-year anniversary of Night Zero‘s publication, which is June 10th.

Here’s to hoping.

Ascendancy, Book 3 of The Chosen Cycle, is also complete through a first draft. I’m shooting for Fall 2020 as a release time frame.

Now, just because I have 2 books in the publication pipeline doesn’t mean I’m resting on my laurels. No sir. I’ve made a tentative start on The Chosen Cycle 4, and have an outline prepared for NZ3 (yes, there will be a book 3, and probably a 4, and a 5, and…) Seriously, I have no idea how long the Night Zero saga will be. I’m letting the book and its characters guide me, and we’ll find out together how it all turns out.

I’ve also gotten an outline prepared for Project: Genesis, which will be the direct sequel to Project: Heritage. And I discovered something while preparing this outline and while working on Ascendancy. The two series are related! Yeah, I know. It blew my mind, too. So, if you haven’t started The Chosen Cycle or Project: Heritage, now’s as good a time as any.

What else? I’ve got a rough plan for Death Watch, which will be the third book with the Richards girls, and a couple of unrelated stories that I’ve either started or plan to start. I need to clean up my current workspace before I add more, or so I tell myself.

Thank you to everyone who followed the story begun in Brightness with a purchase or read of Into Darkness.

And an especial thank you to all those who continue to make Night Zero a huge success. Now entering its eighth month of publication, Night Zero remains in or near the top 100 in Medical Thrillers, and has cracked the top 100 in Horror Suspense. The story will continue this summer.

Thank you again for your voracious appetite for books, and your amazing support. I’ll try to keep ’em coming.