Schooled in Magic/General Update
As you know, Little Witches came out just before Christmas (Happy Christmas) and, pretty much immediately afterwards, I finished the first draft of The Right Side of History, which picks up immediately after Little Witches. I’m hoping to get the eBook out by mid-February, but obviously it depends on editing and cover designing. After that, my rough plan is to write The Face of the Enemy and Child of Destiny in February and April respectively. After that …
I do intend to expand The Cunning Man’s Tale (which will be published in Fantastic Schools III) into a full novel, perhaps as the first of a trilogy. It follows a very different character from Emily – for starters, he’s not a magician – as Heart’s Eye becomes the home of a steampunk-style world. I’m scribbling down notes for that, although – as always – I intend the first novel to be fairly stand-alone. I also intend to continue with the Stuck in Magic serial – I hope you’re enjoying it.
I do have more story ideas for Emily, so she will be back. .
On different books …
Cast Adrift is being looked at by a publisher, but – of course – there’s no guarantee of anything. If it doesn’t get through the filters, I’ll publish it online and then start writing the squeals.
Fighting for the Crown (Ark 16) just came out too and I’m scribbling notes to turn the Drake’s Drum concept into an actual plot.
I have a rough plan for The Prince’s War, which will be the first of a new series following Prince Roland as he kicks ass in the chaos of the dying empire. I’m not sure, yet, if I should write that one in March or Drake’s Drum.
I’m messing around with other ideas, both fantasy and SF.
One of them is set in the very dawn of empire, in which a star union is bent on reuniting the human race for very good reasons … not, of course, that everyone sees it that way. The hero would get in serious trouble as he graduates the space academy and, for political reasons, is punished by being promoted to Lt. Commander (he graduated as a LT), given command of a rust-bucket and told to establish law and order in a distant sector. His enemies think he’ll be blown away (it’s a rubbish ship), find it an impossible task or simply get lost when the time comes for more promotion,
Another – more fantasy than anything else – would follow a princess, the twin sister of the Crown Prince, who escapes her uncle’s clutches when he takes the throne for himself, poses as her brother and raises a rebellion.
I’ve also been looking at a handful of short stories for the Fantastic Schools set and suchlike.
What do you think I should do first?
Chris
