This month I’m going to change around how I do these updates to make it clearer the order in which things are happening. I’m also adding a summary list at the top if you just want to know the status.
List of projects:
- Tales of the Undying Empire – Kindle and print versions available from Amazon; complete.
- The Traitor and the Thief – Manuscript completed, waiting for final pass before going to beta readers.
- The Broken Temple of Yinak – Story completed, ready for editing, will be posted in April.
- Origin – Awaiting review and decision on how to move forward.
- The Revenant and the Reaper – Outline completed, working on chapter-by-chapter plan.
- The Darkness in the Deep – Outline completed, chapter-by-chapter plan completed.
Tales of the Undying Empire
With both the kindle version and the physical book available from Amazon, this is now complete. Unfortunately, Amazon is still working on linking the two entries and making sure they both show up on my Author page, but I’ve notified of them of this and it should be corrected soon.
The Traitor and the Thief
This has been sitting waiting for my final pass before it goes to my beta readers. The Broken Temple of Yinak (see below) has taken up more of my time than I originally planned, but I’m ready to get to the final pass now and I will be focusing all my energy on this until it’s out to the beta readers. I’m not making any promises on timing, though, because sometimes I find things that I had missed earlier that requires a bit more work to correct.
But I’m working hard and I hope to have good news next month.
The Broken Temple of Yinak
This is the first story of Kaus Kagunvar, and I wanted it to be just right. And so instead of a short story, I’ve actually written a novella. I hadn’t planned to do it this way, but the story needed to be told in a particular way, and I can’t say I’m disappointed in the result.
So I will be posting this in its entirety next week as my “short story” for the month. I have additional stories about this character planned, and it wouldn’t surprise me if some more of these turn out to be novella length as well.
But other than The Broken Temple of Yinak, I will probably hold onto the other stories and publish them all in a collection once I have enough to make it worthwhile. This is going to take some time, as I’m going to work on them between my other novels. But I really enjoyed writing about Kaus Kagunvar, and I hope you enjoy reading about his exploits.
Origin
Not much to say here this month. Once The Traitor and the Thief is off to my beta readers, I’ll review the story and figure out what work needs to be done to get this published. But considering everything else that’s going on, I could see this one being delayed until much later in the year.
The Revenant and the Reaper
I already know how the Undying Empire: Rebellion trilogy is going to end, and I have a fully-complete outline for this book done. I need to work on my chapter-by-chapter plan, but that comes after I take a look at Origin and usually happens right before I start writing (while everything is fresh in my mind and I’m excited to get working on it).
The Darkness in the Deep
Just to be clear, this is a working title only. But this is the next novel in the Tales of the Undying Empire series, and signals the return of Jeyrra and Flasek from The Severed Oath. I already have the outline and the chapter-by-chapter plan completed, and so I’m ready to start writing it as soon as I finish The Revenant and the Reaper.
This Blog
I don’t usually talk about this blog in my plans, other than the short story that I’m going to post. But I’ve been blogging steadily every week since I set out my plan here back in July of last year. I’ve managed to keep it going without missing a single week, and I’m pretty happy with the way things are.
I’ve taken a look at what posts get the most attention, and the clear winner is my posts about stuff I find cool. My posts about The One Ring, Night’s Black Agents, The Conan RPG, and Talislanta: Savage Lands are the highest-viewed posts by far, with my Reading & Writing posts in second place, followed by everything else.
I’m pretty happy with the reads I’m getting on my short stories, despite the fact that the posts about them are pretty low in views—but it’s the stories themselves that matter, so that’s not a big deal.
I’m not quite ready to change anything up here, but I’ve been considering what I might want to add or drop. I’ll keep an eye on things for the next couple of months, and probably make a change right around the one-year mark. Not sure what the change will be, but I know I’ll definitely make some adjustments.
That’s it for this week. I can’t wait to share The Broken Temple of Yinak with you next Sunday.
Andrew J. Luther 