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.
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