Hi there everybody, this blog post is long overdue. I've been putting it off because at this point there isn't really much to say. I've long since finished my draft of book 2 and I'm working on edits. I expect to hear back from the first of my alpha readers sometime today, but the book is evolving as I make the changes that I wrote down during my own read-through. The draft is currently a bit over 120,000 words, so I expect it to be approximately the same length as the first book, Zeal of the Mind and Flesh.
Also, an audiobook is in the works thanks to Tantor Media. I would never have been able to get an audio version out this quickly without them. I've handed off the current version of Zeal of the Mind and Flesh to them and they're currently hard at work turning that into a sound file. You'll hear more about that when I do.
Basically, book 2 is right around the corner. I don't think I'll be able to make it in November as I'd hoped, but a December release is still reasonable. Honestly, the draft is currently in the state I initially published Zeal of the Mind and Flesh in, but now that I'm more confident that people will actually buy and read this book I want to put a little more polish in before release, instead of doing it after like I did with book 1.
My schedule's still hectic since I'm still looking for a better job (don't tell my manager). Hopefully an overnight clerk position or something similar so I can sit down and email myself a few notes while nobody's at the counter *wink*. I wrote this book a lot more efficiently than I wrote Zeal of the Mind and Flesh, so hopefully as I make further efforts to straighten out my life I can get book 3 in reading shape in even less time.
I've also been talking to a few other authors as I come up with a long-term plan as an author. Getting more titles out there is very important, especially to new authors. The downside of the Spellheart series is that the books take a long time to write, and to be honest they could be twice as long as they are and still not do all the characters justice. As a result, I've been toying with a few side-series ideas I could pursue. There's going to be a natural break point at the end of book 3 in the Spellheart series, so I might take that opportunity to launch a new series at the industry-standard 80,000 words, and structure it in a way that's a bit easier to write. Doing so would both stabilize my position as an author and keep me from getting bored, because there were more than a few times writing book 2 where I was just stuck on a scene and could have used that time to write something else. More of that later.
Basically, a lot of things are happening and not a minute passes by where I'm not thinking of you guys. I'm getting this next book out ASAP, angry relatives, possible evictions, and shitty day job be damned.
Thanks to everyone who read book 1! I'm hoping you'll enjoy Secrets of the Hearthwood even more!
PS: A couple of my beta readers are backing out or not responding, so I might want to fill a few additional positions. Email me at MarvinWhiteknight@gmail.com if you would like to volunteer.
