The Tome of Revelations
I’m almost done with this crazy book. I spent the past week working on sketches and ink drawings for the temples that will be included in the free book. The word count came out to just over 29k. Inside is a story in itself, though it’s choppy (because it’s organized like a religious text). There are prophets, kings, and temples. I inserted stories and parables that I can use in discussions between characters in the main story. I even took the extra step to number each sentence so that I could do something like The Invasion 2:14. Here’s a screenshot from my Kindle for one page at random:
Nadaka is the name of a planet. It is one of the 20 ancient worlds that the Tome references throughout. How the human race came to inhabit 20 worlds is explained in an act where their God divides them between vast distances. This is their punishment for committing so many sins. Of course, all of this is just a set-up for the main story when the humans are cast into an unknown part of the galaxy where they encounter the Demon as mentioned in the Tome.
Some of the more exciting stuff is toward the end, where I made up several major revelations. These are very vague, but interesting on their own. They’ll come to play in the series as I write the books. They hint at what the plot will entail without giving anything away.
The end of 2022
It’s snowing outside. Well, in the valley, it’s raining and that’s what the weather forecast is stating, but up here at 6,000 feet elevation, it’s snowing like crazy. Being an introvert/programmer, my wife and I are just staying in and keeping warm. Well… other than the fact that we have to go out and snow-blow/shovel the driveway and sidewalk.
The good news is that it gives me an excuse to stay in and work on my writing. Now that 2022 is almost behind us, I can say that it’s been a pretty good year. We didn’t get all the hiking we wanted to get in, but there is always next year. Someday, I’ll write some short stories about crazy things that have happened to us while hiking in the desert or in the mountains. Some of these “oopsies” could have been our demise, but fortunately, we got lucky and survived. Variations of these stories could show up in future books, so at least there’s that. Fortunately, each episode has prompted us to buy emergency equipment, like a satellite radio, emergency blankets, freeze-dried food, headlamps, etc (my backpack is getting heavy).
As far as my writing progress, I accomplished 466,550 words for the year, beating my previous personal record of 296k in 2020 (last year I was down to 281k). I wrote 5 Daphne Blazefire books, plus the not-yet-published free book called “Daphne.” I also wrote a couple of short stories (The Space Junk Collector and Alien Surprise Attack). On top of all that, I also completed the first book of the new Traveler series called Desperate Action.
What’s in store for 2023?
My first and most important task is to write and finish The Demons. That will kick off the Escape from the Abyss series. If I look into my murky crystal ball, I can see a year where I’ll alternate between the two series (The Traveler and Escape from the Abyss). In the summer, I could slip in another Daphne Blazefire book. If things go well, I might do a couple of MacKenzie Steele shorts. I have the first scene of the Cargo Pirates written. Just need to carve out some time and finish that one.
One thing I did learn in late 2020, or early 2021 is that I have to stick to my current project and complete the one book I’m focused on. Sometimes I’ll get stuck (or bored) and switch to another book in progress for one day or a weekend, just to give myself a rest. However, I always suck it up and work on the current book. That’s how I end up getting my projects finished. This means that right now, I’m focused on the completion and polishing of The Tome. I have a self-imposed deadline of next week to finish that. I expect it’ll be done by Monday. That includes the final details on the ink drawings (which can be a major time sink). Then I’m going to have my nose to the grinding wheel on The Demons. I’m not going to deviate from writing this book for anything.
The Demons will take the longest of that series to write (hopefully). Just like Desperate Action was to The Traveler series. The Demons is the first book of a potentially long series (about 20 books). It’s important to get it right so I don’t lose readers right out of the gate. I want this book to go out with a bang. I also have to make sure that it’ll connect to the series in a way that I can continue several threads of plots with interesting characters. Once I get the first book published, I’ll have a good feel for how long it’ll take me to write the next book (and the next, etc.). This comes in handy when I plan for deadlines. Like the Daphne books, which ended up taking about 2 months each. Desperate Action took me 93 days (from September 8th to December 10th). I also had one really good day where I wrote 11,429 words in one day!
So, do I have an accurate estimate of how long it will take me to do book 2 of The Traveler series? Not yet, but I’m certain it’ll take less than 3 months since I already have the characters established and the story is flowing. It’ll be a matter of reviewing what I already wrote and getting into character. Meanwhile, I anticipate that The Demons will take more than three months total, though I’ve already written half of the rough draft. It’ll probably take me a week to read over what I have in place and continue on. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I can finish the book by March or April. My best guess (using the scientific method I call “gut feeling”), once I get into the flow, The Traveler books will take me two months each and the Abyss books will take me three months each.
Stay tuned, there’s a lot more coming.