Mark Henwick's Blog - Posts Tagged "monthly-progress-writing-update"
Update on progress
I’ve become quite bad at updating, and I’ve added a prompt in my diary to write something at the end of every month.
Urban Fantasy
Current priority project: Bite Back 9.
Scheduled for release this year, slipping a little to Q4.
Amber and Bian have the initial meeting of the new Assembly to host in Denver, which itself is full of problems for both of them, but Amber also has to persuade the Were Confederation to attend, and she can’t simply ignore the war with Basilikos while the Assembly sits. Nor can she refuse to assist as Emergence seeps into the highest levels of government. And all the while, her friends are increasingly worried about her.
Developments… I tried to write some scenes in the Amber style, and I didn’t like them. After a lot of thinking, I decided that it wasn’t possible, and that some parts of the story had to be told by another person. It’s a long way into the series to pull something like this, but Amanda Lloyd, House Lloyd will be the point of view character in a few chapters. And I believe that it makes it more immersive if she’s talking in the first person. The majority of chapters will remain first person point of view from Amber.
I worked with different points of view in both my Science Fiction series, and, even though I had a few complaints, I think it told the stories well. I hope it will work in Bite Back too.
I had some messages this last week discussing antagonists, and it seems I was a bit too subtle in Snake Eyes. There are three major antagonist groups left: The big one is Matlal and the Lost Gods (Quetzalcoatl & Tezcatlipoca) I count all three together as one. Everyone knows that Vega Martine and her House is another. It seems quite a few of you haven’t spotted that Askrynos, the ‘Masked Demon’, is the third, and a few couldn’t even remember who this is.
From Snake Eyes:
And then there was the one I could not name or put a face to. The one behind Peterson, because sure as shit, a colonel in the army didn’t have the juice to do what he did without someone very high up in the government.
Askrynos, Diana called him. Or her. From an old Athanate myth: the Masked Demon. The hidden evil. The one who cannot be seen.
Askrynos. The name pulsed with hate in my stomach.
Three major antagonists suggest three novels left in the series.
Obviously, there are also what I call ‘incidental antagonists’. For example, the Central Mountain Confederation (the group of werewolves that tried to take over Colorado) need to be dealt with (book 9). The elements of all paranormal communities who regard Amber and her House as abominations (ongoing). And the human community…
Meanwhile, a good deal of book 9 is concerned with Amber reverting to her paranormal PI role to find Askrynos, because leaving such an enemy high in the US government as Emergence breaks would be a disaster.
Mixed in with this, Amber wants to reveal what she is to her family before the news breaks, and they join up the dots.
German market for Bite Back
We’re putting together a big boxset for the German versions, as we have done recently with the English versions.
Science Fiction
The Long Way Home
The fourth book of the series, Don’t Stop Now, has been released and is doing well.
This book takes the intrepid crew of the Dark Phoenix (formerly the Acid Penguin) into the heart of the Inner Worlds. Those star systems aren’t as rich and stable as Jan and Bjorn expected, and the best flow of commerce is all against their direction of travel.
But they find one good turn deserves…
Well, it would be difficult to say they get an easy good turn back, but life does become very shady and interesting for a while.
And then they’re in the depths of the Inner Worlds, where evil and corruption is rife.
Warning, it ends on a cliffhanger. Mwah ha ha ha!
German version
Don’t Stop Now, will be available in German in another month or so. The title will be ‘Jetzt oder Nie’ (Now or Never).
Other series
And now to my poor orphans.
Firstly, the other two series which I have promised I will get to…
Bian’s Tale
I loved writing the first book, The Harvest of Lies. (A good thing because my editor made me write it about 3 times).
I loved the research, and it was necessary because 1890s Saigon isn’t the most accessible of eras & places. I have a huge box of books (some of them in French), videos in DVD and VHS(!) format, TV recordings, entire battered notebooks, travel guides, etc. etc.
I found the box stuffed away in the back of the attic a couple of weeks ago.
Why?
Because when I released Bian’s Tale 1, The Harvest of Lies… it disappeared with barely a ripple. I don’t think the writing is bad, or the setting is too unusual. (Although someone complained of the evidence of too much research, lol). But I think I got the marketing wrong (cover, advertising etc.).
While I was still finding that out, for a few weeks, I was running on the enthusiasm of the first book, and outlined five others, and I wrote some of book 2, The Words of the Dead. Then I put it aside because the response to book 1 was so bad, and eventually I tidied the research away into the attic.
All that said, with the resurgence of Bite Back, now people are discovering The Harvest of Lies and complaining about the non-appearance of book 2.
I will return to The Words of the Dead. I hope next year. There are 5-6 books in the series which will take Bian through to the point where she is appointed Diakon of House Altau, with maybe an epilogue that shows Bian’s point of view at that first meeting with Amber described in Sleight of Hand.
Among the Stars
Another orphan series. The first two books were written as episodes which I posted on WordPress and made available in newsletters.
Book 1, A Name Among the Stars, was a definite success. I wrote it as a bit of an experiment, which freed me from the concept of narrow genres and writing styles. Book 1 was a deliberate attempt to write a mash-up of a Regency romance and Science Fiction adventure, in the first person, present tense. It was great fun to write. I thought it was going to be a stand-alone, but enough people asked for more, and so I wrote A Theat Among the Stars. The complexity of the story required the addition of multiple PoV characters, with Zara remaining in the first person and other PoV characters speaking in the third person. All fun to write as well.
Readers liked A Threat Among the Stars, but not in the numbers to make book 3, A Ship Among the Stars, a high enough priority.
I have written some short stories which form part of book 3, and I do want to finish this series, but it’s definitely a ‘next year’ thing.
There are a couple more books in this series.
Other Orphans
Stand Up
An unnamed sequel to Change of Regime (one of the novellas in the Bite Back universe)
A host of others.
Yes. I know. So many unfinished projects. I hate not finishing things. I will get through everything, but I started a slow writer and I haven’t got any faster!
That’s it for now. I hope you’re enjoying your summer (or winter), wherever you are.
Urban Fantasy
Current priority project: Bite Back 9.
Scheduled for release this year, slipping a little to Q4.
Amber and Bian have the initial meeting of the new Assembly to host in Denver, which itself is full of problems for both of them, but Amber also has to persuade the Were Confederation to attend, and she can’t simply ignore the war with Basilikos while the Assembly sits. Nor can she refuse to assist as Emergence seeps into the highest levels of government. And all the while, her friends are increasingly worried about her.
Developments… I tried to write some scenes in the Amber style, and I didn’t like them. After a lot of thinking, I decided that it wasn’t possible, and that some parts of the story had to be told by another person. It’s a long way into the series to pull something like this, but Amanda Lloyd, House Lloyd will be the point of view character in a few chapters. And I believe that it makes it more immersive if she’s talking in the first person. The majority of chapters will remain first person point of view from Amber.
I worked with different points of view in both my Science Fiction series, and, even though I had a few complaints, I think it told the stories well. I hope it will work in Bite Back too.
I had some messages this last week discussing antagonists, and it seems I was a bit too subtle in Snake Eyes. There are three major antagonist groups left: The big one is Matlal and the Lost Gods (Quetzalcoatl & Tezcatlipoca) I count all three together as one. Everyone knows that Vega Martine and her House is another. It seems quite a few of you haven’t spotted that Askrynos, the ‘Masked Demon’, is the third, and a few couldn’t even remember who this is.
From Snake Eyes:
And then there was the one I could not name or put a face to. The one behind Peterson, because sure as shit, a colonel in the army didn’t have the juice to do what he did without someone very high up in the government.
Askrynos, Diana called him. Or her. From an old Athanate myth: the Masked Demon. The hidden evil. The one who cannot be seen.
Askrynos. The name pulsed with hate in my stomach.
Three major antagonists suggest three novels left in the series.
Obviously, there are also what I call ‘incidental antagonists’. For example, the Central Mountain Confederation (the group of werewolves that tried to take over Colorado) need to be dealt with (book 9). The elements of all paranormal communities who regard Amber and her House as abominations (ongoing). And the human community…
Meanwhile, a good deal of book 9 is concerned with Amber reverting to her paranormal PI role to find Askrynos, because leaving such an enemy high in the US government as Emergence breaks would be a disaster.
Mixed in with this, Amber wants to reveal what she is to her family before the news breaks, and they join up the dots.
German market for Bite Back
We’re putting together a big boxset for the German versions, as we have done recently with the English versions.
Science Fiction
The Long Way Home
The fourth book of the series, Don’t Stop Now, has been released and is doing well.
This book takes the intrepid crew of the Dark Phoenix (formerly the Acid Penguin) into the heart of the Inner Worlds. Those star systems aren’t as rich and stable as Jan and Bjorn expected, and the best flow of commerce is all against their direction of travel.
But they find one good turn deserves…
Well, it would be difficult to say they get an easy good turn back, but life does become very shady and interesting for a while.
And then they’re in the depths of the Inner Worlds, where evil and corruption is rife.
Warning, it ends on a cliffhanger. Mwah ha ha ha!
German version
Don’t Stop Now, will be available in German in another month or so. The title will be ‘Jetzt oder Nie’ (Now or Never).
Other series
And now to my poor orphans.
Firstly, the other two series which I have promised I will get to…
Bian’s Tale
I loved writing the first book, The Harvest of Lies. (A good thing because my editor made me write it about 3 times).
I loved the research, and it was necessary because 1890s Saigon isn’t the most accessible of eras & places. I have a huge box of books (some of them in French), videos in DVD and VHS(!) format, TV recordings, entire battered notebooks, travel guides, etc. etc.
I found the box stuffed away in the back of the attic a couple of weeks ago.
Why?
Because when I released Bian’s Tale 1, The Harvest of Lies… it disappeared with barely a ripple. I don’t think the writing is bad, or the setting is too unusual. (Although someone complained of the evidence of too much research, lol). But I think I got the marketing wrong (cover, advertising etc.).
While I was still finding that out, for a few weeks, I was running on the enthusiasm of the first book, and outlined five others, and I wrote some of book 2, The Words of the Dead. Then I put it aside because the response to book 1 was so bad, and eventually I tidied the research away into the attic.
All that said, with the resurgence of Bite Back, now people are discovering The Harvest of Lies and complaining about the non-appearance of book 2.
I will return to The Words of the Dead. I hope next year. There are 5-6 books in the series which will take Bian through to the point where she is appointed Diakon of House Altau, with maybe an epilogue that shows Bian’s point of view at that first meeting with Amber described in Sleight of Hand.
Among the Stars
Another orphan series. The first two books were written as episodes which I posted on WordPress and made available in newsletters.
Book 1, A Name Among the Stars, was a definite success. I wrote it as a bit of an experiment, which freed me from the concept of narrow genres and writing styles. Book 1 was a deliberate attempt to write a mash-up of a Regency romance and Science Fiction adventure, in the first person, present tense. It was great fun to write. I thought it was going to be a stand-alone, but enough people asked for more, and so I wrote A Theat Among the Stars. The complexity of the story required the addition of multiple PoV characters, with Zara remaining in the first person and other PoV characters speaking in the third person. All fun to write as well.
Readers liked A Threat Among the Stars, but not in the numbers to make book 3, A Ship Among the Stars, a high enough priority.
I have written some short stories which form part of book 3, and I do want to finish this series, but it’s definitely a ‘next year’ thing.
There are a couple more books in this series.
Other Orphans
Stand Up
An unnamed sequel to Change of Regime (one of the novellas in the Bite Back universe)
A host of others.
Yes. I know. So many unfinished projects. I hate not finishing things. I will get through everything, but I started a slow writer and I haven’t got any faster!
That’s it for now. I hope you’re enjoying your summer (or winter), wherever you are.
August update
Urban Fantasy
Current project: Bite Back 9.
Not a huge amount to say about writing progress, other than August wasn’t the best month for concentrated work.
As mentioned in last month’s update, some of the scenes are being provided from Amanda Lloyd’s point of view. It’s quite fun using a different voice and perception of events to describe what’s happening at Haven.
I’m still debating on the amount of darkness I have in this book. It’s not so much the darkness itself, it’s the arc of the story. In a single book, the traditional arc of the book goes something like this:
1. Setup and background.
2. The event that precipitates the main story.
3. The major setback.
4. The point at which it all seems hopeless.
5. The fight back and victory.
6. Tie it up neatly.
In theory, a series should have a similar arc, but I’d drive many of you away if I spent an entire book on section 4, where everything seems hopeless. Bite Back 9 is in that area. Amber keeps winning, but she’s losing herself in the process.
As mentioned last time, Amber’s focus for much of this book is hunting down Askrynos, the Matlal operative that is highly placed in the government. That’s distracting her from the new Assembly, i.e. the Assembly put together to represent all the paranormal races. It’s a race between that and the official acknowledgement in the human world that the paranormal exists.
Translations.
Snake Eyes is nearly there in French. I’ve no idea how to market it and the novellas (which are ready to go) in France, where Bite Back 1-7 are still being published by Bragelonne division of Hachette.
Science Fiction
Book 4 in The Long Way Home, Don’t Stop Now to be released as ‘Jetzt oder Nie’ (Now or Never), has been translated, but it still in quality control checking. I don’t have a German-specific Facebook page for Science Fiction, but I will be announcing the release on the German UF page and the SciFi & author pages I run.
Marketing
Facebook is endlessly tweaking its algorithms, and several notable authors have posted that their sales have slowed dramatically, including writers like Jennifer Estep.
I don’t know what they’re doing. I’m spending much less on advertising with Facebook, but my team are coming up with an Amazon campaign, which is probably what we would have needed in France anyway.
I’ll keep you posted!
Other
I’m learning the piano. I can sort of play melodies with my right hand, and chords with my left, but when it gets to putting them together… lol!
I used to play the guitar at school (very badly), but I wrote a lot of lyrics, to which my friend Colin composed music.
There are a couple of lines in my books, which I’ll be turning into complete songs, but don’t worry, I will not be singing them. I may try and persuade Jessica.
May release them in the newsletter…
Also re-read a couple of police procedural books to get my mind into Amber being a PI again. I’ll review those and others in a separate post.
Current project: Bite Back 9.
Not a huge amount to say about writing progress, other than August wasn’t the best month for concentrated work.
As mentioned in last month’s update, some of the scenes are being provided from Amanda Lloyd’s point of view. It’s quite fun using a different voice and perception of events to describe what’s happening at Haven.
I’m still debating on the amount of darkness I have in this book. It’s not so much the darkness itself, it’s the arc of the story. In a single book, the traditional arc of the book goes something like this:
1. Setup and background.
2. The event that precipitates the main story.
3. The major setback.
4. The point at which it all seems hopeless.
5. The fight back and victory.
6. Tie it up neatly.
In theory, a series should have a similar arc, but I’d drive many of you away if I spent an entire book on section 4, where everything seems hopeless. Bite Back 9 is in that area. Amber keeps winning, but she’s losing herself in the process.
As mentioned last time, Amber’s focus for much of this book is hunting down Askrynos, the Matlal operative that is highly placed in the government. That’s distracting her from the new Assembly, i.e. the Assembly put together to represent all the paranormal races. It’s a race between that and the official acknowledgement in the human world that the paranormal exists.
Translations.
Snake Eyes is nearly there in French. I’ve no idea how to market it and the novellas (which are ready to go) in France, where Bite Back 1-7 are still being published by Bragelonne division of Hachette.
Science Fiction
Book 4 in The Long Way Home, Don’t Stop Now to be released as ‘Jetzt oder Nie’ (Now or Never), has been translated, but it still in quality control checking. I don’t have a German-specific Facebook page for Science Fiction, but I will be announcing the release on the German UF page and the SciFi & author pages I run.
Marketing
Facebook is endlessly tweaking its algorithms, and several notable authors have posted that their sales have slowed dramatically, including writers like Jennifer Estep.
I don’t know what they’re doing. I’m spending much less on advertising with Facebook, but my team are coming up with an Amazon campaign, which is probably what we would have needed in France anyway.
I’ll keep you posted!
Other
I’m learning the piano. I can sort of play melodies with my right hand, and chords with my left, but when it gets to putting them together… lol!
I used to play the guitar at school (very badly), but I wrote a lot of lyrics, to which my friend Colin composed music.
There are a couple of lines in my books, which I’ll be turning into complete songs, but don’t worry, I will not be singing them. I may try and persuade Jessica.
May release them in the newsletter…
Also re-read a couple of police procedural books to get my mind into Amber being a PI again. I’ll review those and others in a separate post.
September update
This has images, so you need to view on the blog
https://henwick.wordpress.com/2025/09...
TEXT
Well, summer has definitely gone!
Writing Progress
I spent a few days this month down at a friend’s house in Teignmouth, a small port in Devon. It’s a place that helps me write because just about the only thing you can hear from his living room is the wind and the seagulls. I used the mornings to write and then we went for strenuous walks in the afternoon. There are lots of hills there. In the evening, I wrote some more and then we made ourselves some dinner and set to putting the world to rights with a glass of wine or two.
Progress on the book is good in fits and starts. I can’t seem to maintain a regular schedule of thousands of words a day. I’m too easily distracted.
As I’ve mentioned in previous updates, Amanda Lloyd comes in as a second point of view character in this book. Have a read of the two snippets below and tell me what you think…
Here’s a snippet from Amanda’s PoV:
image
And here’s one from Amber’s PoV:
image
Translations
I’m still waiting for the final, post-edit & beta-read versions of Bite Back 8 in French "L’œil du serpent" and The Long Way Home 4 in German "Jetzt oder Nie".
The previous French translations have all been done by Bragelonne (now part of Hachette), and they did the covers, which we have to match to a reasonable level. Here is a composite of the images:
image
Print versions
My apologies, it has taken me a year to get book 8 in German released as a paperback. Anyway, it’s there now.
https://www.amazon.de/dp/1912499606
I have also promised to make the novellas into paperbacks, and I will get to it. Soon. Ish.
Monthly content or short story release
For those who read my Science Fiction, you probably already know that I have a couple of short stories that will form part of book 3 of the Among The Stars series.
Whatever I do with them, they will be temporary, because they’d have to be taken down when the full book is released.
In the meantime, would you like to read them as posts on WordPress, or would you like to buy them as very short novellas on Amazon?
Other
I haven’t forgotten any of my ‘orphans’. Here’s a reminder that Bian’s Tale will continue with The Words of the Dead. This was part of an ad campaign I was working on when I shelved it.
image
https://henwick.wordpress.com/2025/09...
TEXT
Well, summer has definitely gone!
Writing Progress
I spent a few days this month down at a friend’s house in Teignmouth, a small port in Devon. It’s a place that helps me write because just about the only thing you can hear from his living room is the wind and the seagulls. I used the mornings to write and then we went for strenuous walks in the afternoon. There are lots of hills there. In the evening, I wrote some more and then we made ourselves some dinner and set to putting the world to rights with a glass of wine or two.
Progress on the book is good in fits and starts. I can’t seem to maintain a regular schedule of thousands of words a day. I’m too easily distracted.
As I’ve mentioned in previous updates, Amanda Lloyd comes in as a second point of view character in this book. Have a read of the two snippets below and tell me what you think…
Here’s a snippet from Amanda’s PoV:
image
And here’s one from Amber’s PoV:
image
Translations
I’m still waiting for the final, post-edit & beta-read versions of Bite Back 8 in French "L’œil du serpent" and The Long Way Home 4 in German "Jetzt oder Nie".
The previous French translations have all been done by Bragelonne (now part of Hachette), and they did the covers, which we have to match to a reasonable level. Here is a composite of the images:
image
Print versions
My apologies, it has taken me a year to get book 8 in German released as a paperback. Anyway, it’s there now.
https://www.amazon.de/dp/1912499606
I have also promised to make the novellas into paperbacks, and I will get to it. Soon. Ish.
Monthly content or short story release
For those who read my Science Fiction, you probably already know that I have a couple of short stories that will form part of book 3 of the Among The Stars series.
Whatever I do with them, they will be temporary, because they’d have to be taken down when the full book is released.
In the meantime, would you like to read them as posts on WordPress, or would you like to buy them as very short novellas on Amazon?
Other
I haven’t forgotten any of my ‘orphans’. Here’s a reminder that Bian’s Tale will continue with The Words of the Dead. This was part of an ad campaign I was working on when I shelved it.
image
