Outlining Final Chapters of Veznek

Over the past few days since Kholvaria‘s release, I’ve been going through and re-reading/editing the work I’ve done on Veznek, the upcoming third book in the Color of Water and Sky series.

It’s a cool feeling to read my story again after I’ve spent so much time away from it. It’s like re-watching a movie you haven’t seen in a while. This book is good. It’s really good. And I’m not just saying that because I’m the writer. I will finish a chapter and go “ooooh, cool!”

Alas, I’ve finally re-read/edited my way all the way through the book and I’m all caught up to where I left off, which is about 2/3 the way through what will be the finished story.

Up until now, I’ve written the book one character at a time. I wrote all of A’s chapters, then all of B’s chapters and so on. But now I’ve reached the point where the characters are starting to re-group, so at this stage, I’m reverting back to my old writing style (that is, writing it all chronologically). Since I’m going back to my old style, I had to do a bit of outlining, just to make sure everything matched up the way I wanted.

And the outline, let me tell you, is intense.

Every single chapter in the final 1/3 of the story is so full of action. Iris was admittedly a very slow-paced book. Kholvaria was faster by comparison, but still, I’ve never written a book this eventful before. There are basically six chapters-worth of climax.

Veznek is by far the darkest, grittiest, scariest and most depressing book in the series. A lot of villains are given the spotlight. Part of me does worry that I’m going too dark. There is one chapter in particular that I’m concerned pushes the boundaries too far. However, the final book, Hive, will be a lot lighter by comparison. If all goes as I have in mind, Hive will have the lightest tone in the series, a good way to cap it off, I think. So perhaps it will all balance out the end. I suppose only time will tell.

Meanwhile, sales on Iris and Kholvaria continue to do well. I haven’t had a $0.00 day since May 20th, which is pretty remarkable for me. I think a combination of factors has really helped push the books forward. I expect to see another slight boost when some of my Headtalker campaigns blast out in about two weeks.

Meanwhile, meanwhile, Cassidy is almost done. I’ve completed 15 and 1/2 chapters of what will be an 18 chapter book, so that’s terrific progress in my opinion. The issue is, Cassidy is a book I am writing exclusively during commutes. Now that the weather has improved so much in my area, I mainly run-commute these days, meaning I don’t really write a lot of Cassidy anymore. But rest assured! With an upcoming trip planned to Chicago, I know I’ll have the time to finish it there. Long plane rides are perfect for getting chapters finished. My guess is Cassidy‘s rough draft will be finished by the end of the month.

Honestly, at this rate, so might the first draft of Veznek.

We may very-well see both books release ahead of schedule. More news on that later.