Tag Archives: The War God’s Son

Occasional Update

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JYMDH-AT-BNudging from the search engine terms that bring people to this site, at least some of you out there are wondering where I stand on various projects, so it’s probably time for another update. I’ll be as specific as I can be, and if anyone has any questions, I’ll do my best to answer them.

Power’s Shadow (Working title to the sequel to Black Kath’s Daughter, or more accurately, the 3rd in the Laws of Power series): I was about 17000 words into this when I had to put it on hold, and the reason for that should be clear in a bit. I’m hoping to get back to it sometime after the end of the year, but for now other projects have priority. I had to leave Marta in an interesting situation and I’m eager to get back to it, but that will have to wait.

To Break the Demon Gate (the first Lord Yamada novel): The publication date for this has slipped, but PS Publishing still plans to bring it out this year. The new target date is November, and I’ll make an announcement when I know more. Since this is PS, this will be a limited edition. I’m pleased to say that there will be a trade paper edition as well, but that’s not scheduled until 2014. I’ll give full details once I know what they are.

The War God’s Son (the second Yamada novel): This is the reason that Power’s Shadow is on hold. I’ve got a publisher waiting to see this one, so it has to take precedence, and as of now I’m about a third of the way through the first draft. My plan is to finish this before the end of the year. Right now that target still looks doable, but only if I concentrate on the book to the exclusion of pretty much everything else. So any other writing projects are going to have to wait. Frankly I’m used to working at my own pace, so having something like a deadline is…different. A good thing, but different.

Short Fiction: I have just two stories awaiting publication at the moment, at Weird Tales and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Not sure if the WT story will see print or not this year, but maybe. There likely won’t be any more until next year because I’m just not that good at multi-tasking. Especially without multi-time to go with it.

This is where the writing stands at the moment. Other non-writing aspects of the business are also in motion, and if anything else happens you’ll read about it here first. But for now, this is all the news that is.

Plodding, With Occasional Smites From the Heavens

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Hailstone1We’re kind of at the point where nothing is happening, but that nothing has to happen in just the right way. By which I mean that I’m well into the book and at the stage, which lasts just about until, oh, the time that stage ends, when I don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t know what’s going to happen except perhaps in broad strokes, and I still have to figure out how to write this book. And to those who say, you damn well should know how to write a novel by now, I can only answer (cribbing from a colleague of mine), “Of course I know how to write a novel. I know how to write the one I finished last. Ask me anything about To Break the Demon Gate and I can tell you. Ask me about The War God’s Son, and I can only stare at you, and possibly drool a little. One of the few things I know for certain is that I’m approaching the 10,000 word threshold. Why is it a threshold? Because I say it is. Or a mile marker. Kind of the same thing in this context.

None of this is especially worrisome to me. I don’t know how everyone else does it, but I go through this every time I write anything, be it short story or novel or blog post. It’s just that with a novel it is far more obvious, and the stage lasts longer. I’m not worried, but if I had any sense I would be. Sometimes sense isn’t your friend.

As for the picture, that’s what the sky dropped on us Monday. I’ve got a couple of big dents in the truck roof and a thoroughly cracked windshield. Other people got worse, though we’ll have to let the insurance adjuster inspect our new roof to make sure it wasn’t totalled. Real life waits for no novel. I don’t think ‘real life’ is a reader.