I spent so long gearing up for the Chosen Wolf release that once the book was out in the world, it left behind a tiny productivity vacuum. I constantly feel like I’m forgetting to do something, specifically something related to the publishing process. I’ve double and triple checked everything more than a few times this week. Nothing is out of place. *shrug*
Speaking of projects for the to-do list, now that Chosen Wolf is out, it’s time to start talking about what comes next. As I’ve done in the past, I’m planning to work on a handful of projects. I’m an OG neurodivergent. I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder as a teenager, back when ADD was still considered a separate diagnosis from ADHD. I don’t have the hyperactivity aspect of the ADHD symptoms. My issues lie with keeping my brain on task. If I experience even a flicker of disinterest or too much silence, my attention span is a goner. One minute, I will be reading an article about something exhausting, and the next thing I know, I’m down in a mental rabbit hole that began with one wandering thought about wishing I had some salt & vinegar potato chips, and ended with me daydreaming about how terrifying scuba diving in the open ocean would be. Sometimes I can retrace the path of thought that led from point A to point Q but not always. Sometimes there are just too many branches off of the original thought.
I’ve found ways to live with the way my brain works. For everyday things, I am all about lists and project management tools. For my writing, I juggle multiple manuscripts at once. Here’s a look at what I am working on now:
WIP #1: My top priority is Devil’s in the Details. This is the fourth installment in the Hellfire series and will be my next book release. I have the plot back up on my corkboard because I need to get the kinks worked out on a few storylines but I plan to begin writing full steam within the next couple of weeks. When released, just like the rest of the series, Devil’s in the Details will be available on Kindle Unlimited.
WIP #2: My second highest priority is Ruiner, the debut novel under my dark romance pen name. The book is cruising right along but being a standalone novel, it’s going to be a lot longer than one of my series novels. However, because it takes place in a real world setting with no magick or creatures, the writing goes by much faster. You can learn more about Ruiner here.
WIP #3: Simmering on the back burner is Lone Wolf, the third book in the Executioner series. I’ve already begun writing it but the events in it don’t take place until after the fifth and final Hellfire novel comes out. So, while I may finish this book before then, it won’t be published until Hellfire books 4 and 5 are both published.
OTHER WIPS: I have a few other projects that are kind of ongoing. The Kings Hollow series is a series of trilogies I have started. Atmospherically, it feels like a love child between the 2003 movie The Covenant and the CW show The Vampire Diaries circa season 5. It’s a passion project with no release date planned (I want to have the first trilogy completely written before I begin releasing the books). I do, however, have all sorts of book nerd stuff for it already: a map of King’s Hollow, a codex that breaks down the Circe Arcana bloodlines (spoilers!), a yearbook-style ebook of the characters you’ll meet from Hawthorne Academy and their powers, and a whole bunch more. Each novel in the trilogy will be on the shorter side. Think R.L. Stine’s Fear Street Super-Chillers (as I violently hurl myself under the age bus) but written for a more mature demographic. As the trilogies are completed, they will be released as single hardcovers with all three books bound as one. My plan is to write my first trilogy (I have several planned out) and then invite other authors to write their own trilogies in my Kings Hollow world. The authors will be bound by contract on the design of the hardcovers so your books will all match if you end up reading the series. If the launch of that shared world is successful, the world is built out in such a way that we can do series spin-offs set in different time periods as well. Generations of witches or classes, if you will. I started cooking up this idea after I wrote my Bonnie Bennet book for The Vampire Diaries Kindle Worlds. I really enjoy writing witches (see also my Hellfire series, my Executioner series, and almost everything else I’ve written) but they’re almost always a side character. I wanted a world that really puts them front and center. Kings Hollow is what I came up with.
Another passion project is Blood Monarchs, a standalone romantasy novel that’s a bit like Game of Thrones but with vampires, absolutely terrifying magick, and a world in which humans are food. This is not the happy/predictable story of a human uprising though. Humans are food and they stay food. lol This book isn’t about them. I have been writing Blood Monarchs in the background since 2019. I have the entire thing mapped out and a pretty good chunk written but it’s going to be a long book when it’s finished (52 chapters + prologue + epilogue). While still fantasy, it’s a bit out of my usual genre and I know for sure it will be a one-off, so I’m not going to go bananas and publish it under a dedicated fantasy pen name. Since it doesn’t really fit with the rest of my books, it’s not a top priority but I do hope to have it out by the end of 2024, if not before. I’ve recently been toying with the idea of sharing the prologue with you so stay tuned for that very soon. Eryas awaits…
And last but not least is Vanishing, a brand new Hellfire world novella which tells Jack’s origin story. It’s actually almost done. I started it during the pandemic and stuffed it in a drawer when my schedule got too hectic. Once I get around to finishing it and it’s been polished up by my editor, it will be made available for free.
Although I’m not a rapid release author, I do have things coming your way soon. My goal this year has been to be more disciplined about my writing time and I can say with a clear conscience that I have been. I have a lot in progress and a lot on the horizon, all of which I am super-excited about.
