So, what’s next?
Shield of Secunda went quite well, moving three times my target of 1,000 copies. As part of my small cadre of fans you may be asking, “Well, I enjoyed that, but what else are you going to do for me?”
Let me lay it out for you because I assure you, 2013 is going to be HUGE from my writing perspective. I have a lot of work planned across a few different genres.
1. Swords of Secunda – The sequel to Shield of Secunda. Rejoin Uthiel as he and the Grey Wolves charge north to reclaim the realm of Imonetia, where the sand lords have lost their city, their army, and their people to the barbarians and the Black Wolves. Stand side by side with our young hero in the shield wall as he carves his way to glory and tries to work out what Zhar T’Hur and his evil minions have planned for the Lands of the Light next!
Swords of Secunda has been a vital part of what my friend Greg Hamilton (A far more intellectual writer than I) would call my ‘writer’s apprenticeship’. I took all of the lessons I learned from Shield of Secunda and put them in to play. As it stands, the first draft is 2/3rds written and I am storming towards a hopeful end of November finish. Then off it goes to my test readers (Guys, I’ll actually listen to you this time, I promise!).
I’ll also be getting Shield of Secunda professionally re-edited prior to the Swords release. If you have a copy that you just couldn’t get through due to some of my grammatical errors, I’ll happily float you a new electronic version.
2. Black Library – I love writing stories for the Black Library open window. Love it. Their world of the 41st Millennium is so incredibly rich with opportunity. Writing for them is my dream job. I will write for them one day, it’s just a matter of time. This coming year I have big plans. I will be releasing 4 Necromunda style short stories around a new character named Thale Rook (Think Judge Dredd meets The Punisher). These will be followed by a novel that includes Thale, but is centred on one of my favourite creations, Colonel Andeferon Morn. All in 2013.
‘All in the one year!?’ I hear you call. Yes. All in the one year. The first short story was hammered out in a week. The next 3 are already planned. The first three chapters of the novel have been written and the chapter plans are completed. These bad boys will be done by end of July. You’ll not see these until well into 2013 as they will be entered into the open window for which the judging closes in September. If they aren’t picked up I’ll be posting them everywhere as fan fiction; releasing them as one a week, every week for five weeks with the full novel available from my site at the end of it. If the BL won’t publish me in 2013, then I’m just going to have to become popular enough with the online fans that in 2014 they won’t be able to not take notice.
3. As yet unnamed novel – This one has been stewing around in my mind for a bit. It’s not fantasy. It’s not sci-fi. It’s just going to be balls-to-the-wall action. The main character is a tremendous arsehole with very few redeeming qualities. I’ve done research through mates who are photographers, military men, journalists, and arseholes. I’ve mapped out conspiracies so confusing I’m almost doing my own head in. I’ve even smashed out a very loose plan for it (though not yet down to the chapter level). Keep an eye on this space, I hope to have this one out before New years next year. I may even have a title for it then too.
4. Sons of Secunda – This is going to be an exceptionally hard trilogy to close off. I can’t really explain why without fucking up the ending of Swords of Secunda for you before I’ve even finished writing it. But trust me, I originally had a plan for it, and then I went and changed the ending of Swords and now I’ve thrown the next book completely out of whack. This one is going to take some serious thought on how I can out-do the ending of Swords (which is going to be ridiculously epic) and close the storyline satisfactorily at the same time. I really don’t want this to be one of those never ending stories like Robert Jordan wrote with the Wheel of Time series (Although, the first 12 books were good – but I just gave up on any hope of an ending to the story after that). I want my readers to get a satisfying ending and then if I feel like continuing the story some time in the future, I will. If not, everyone is happy with just the trilogy.
Anyhow, my plan will be not to complete the novel next year (I think I’ve already promised quite enough above!), but to at least get a chapter plan down and know how I am going to finish the trilogy. Even though it is my writer’s apprenticeship series, hopefully one day I can look back on these with pride as my first steps towards becoming a successful author.
Well, that’s it from me, lads and ladies. Have a good week. Hopefully you’ve not suffered from the man-flu as I have these past 3 days.
Adrian.
