PROGENY Release Day and Writing Update!

Monday marked the birth of Progeny, book 3 in the Endure series! Who’s excited? Whee!

Okay, flailing over.

Progeny is not the final book in the series, but I think you’ll find the end a bit gentler than the end of Nemesis. The world is not yet safe for Lydia and Daniel, and less so for everyone aboard the DWRC Endure. The end is nigh, but how will our heroes defend against the far-reaching evil plot of the Maven Initiative?

Get your copy of the third installment here:

Print copy

For Kindle

All other platforms via Smashwords

And now for the sad panda news. I’ve been stalling on putting this out, but I think it’s time.

Unfortunately, I’ve not made a ton of progress on book 4. I have a list of plot points and a clear goal for the series wrap-up, but the words are not coming as readily as I’d like. Other projects have pushed themselves to the front of my brain, and taken up a good chunk of my time. Frankly, I’m exhausted. And the words that are coming reflect that. Which is no good for the book.

To that end, I’m afraid I may have to push back on the release date for the last book. Originally, my goal was to have the entire series out in the world by my birthday at the beginning of March. At this time, while that’s not an impossible goal, I’m doubtful about whether or not I can make it happen.

You see, this plot is very complex. It’s taken unexpected turns on me and I cannot force myself to spit out a book for the sake of a kamikaze deadline. I want to give Lydia and Daniel the story they deserve, the story my readers deserve, and if I cannot make it my best, I am willing to wait until I can. While I hate to possibly let anyone down, trust me when I say that it would be more of a let down to read something sloppily thrown together just to meet an arbitrary date.

If anything changes, I promise I will let everyone know what the new release date is. Thanks to everyone for their support and I hope you hang in there with me for the happily ever after!

But on to other things…

National Novel Writing Month has wrapped up once again, and, with the help of some fellow fearless wordsmiths, I met my goal. I ended the 30-day frenzy with over 57 thousand words, one completely finished trilogy, and over 30k on a brand new project.

That’s right, a finished TRILOGY. What began in July as an experiment in “is this even a good idea?” more or less took over my ENTIRE life. When you get an idea like that, you just gotta roll with it, people.

I’m not saying a lot about it right now, as the project is in query mode. As with all my projects, I’m subjecting this new series to its chance at traditional publishing.

“Why bother?” you ask. Well, frankly, I see no reason not to. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, after all. I am not one of those who touts one road to publishing over another. I see the benefits to both self and trad publishing, and I’d love the chance to experience the hybrid author lifestyle. Really, it’s more experience in the author toolbox, and I always welcome that.

So we’ll see. I’ve been down this road before, and I know the process is slow and full of heartaches. The frustration this can bring is somewhat lessened in knowing that if I don’t find a traditional home for these new books, I have other ways of sharing this story. Regardless of how it happens, rest assured that you will get to see these eventually. To that end, I will leave you with one word…

Superheroes.

And that’s all I shall give you for now.

So, keep that in your back pocket, and hopefully within a few months, I’ll have more news for you as far as that goes.

But what of the new project I mentioned? That one that I’ve got almost 40 thousand words on?

Well, that one’s also sort of under wraps for the moment, but I’ll tell you this: how about a take on angels and demons in a science fiction vein? Trans-dimensional war, anyone? Added bonus: I am 99% sure it’s a standalone. YAY FOR A NON-EPIC SERIES IDEA!

The goal is 85k words, but that’s fairly fluid. I’m just under the halfway mark on it, and I’m taking it as it comes, so I don’t even have a projected finish date for it yet. The intention was to write something a bit lighter than the heavy emotional involvement of the Endure series or the all-consuming-ness of the Superheroes. I’m playing loose with it. No outrageous release dates. No possession by characters. Just a little thought experiment. A what-if.

It is called The Night Bridge, and sprang from an out-of-context snippet I overheard one of my kids say during one of their pretend play sessions in the car.

So that’s where I’m at as of this moment. I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving and has high hopes for a fun-filled holiday season!