What Next?

Hi, everyone

I’m currently 31 chapters into Exiled To Glory (snippets on the blog) and I’m hopeful of finishing the first draft this week. I have a short story to write for a collection, and another project that might or might not pay off (and I will discuss it later), but after then I intend to start writing The Unnatural Order, which will be book 27 of Schooled In Magic. I’m not quite sure when yet (these are the school holidays) but it will happen.

And after that?

That is the question. Option One is The Fires Of Freedom, which will be the direct successor to The Burning World (A Learning Experience). Option two would probably be The King’s Secret, which is the direct sequel to The Alchemist’s Secret, although I don’t have the plot precisely pinned down yet. The main character will obviously be Adam, but am unsure if I should tie his plot into Lucy (after the events of The Alchemist’s Secret) or pair him up with someone else instead.

The problem, you see, is that I started to explore the storyline in three different points of view. This meant that The Zero Secret, The Family Secret, and The Alchemist’s Secret overlapped in places, a challenge I tried to meet by keeping three books as far apart as possible. Right now, there are now two separate plotlines that need to converge; would it make to sense to isolate them, to a certain degree, so there would basically be two books running in parallel, or would it be better to bring the plotlines together sooner?

I’m actually thinking about pairing Lucy with Isabella, for obvious reasons, and putting Adam’s with another viewpoint character. How does that sound?

Beyond that, as some of you know, I have written a novella for Fantastic School Wars that has given birth to a full plot. It would be relatively stand-alone, unlike the cunning man and its sequels, and it would give me a chance to play around with other teams that I can’t explore with Emily or Adam. Would you like to see that instead?

Let me know what you think.

Chris