Those are all the countries I've sold to. Pretty cool, huh?
So, what next?
You might have already finished both books by the time you guys read this. You'll be glad to know that I'm already working on book 3! I've refined my writing process writing book 2 and gotten a lot more efficient. It took me a little over a year to write book one, but I wrote book 2 in 6 months. I know I wasted a lot of time during that period fiddling with the text only to delete an entire chapter and start again. My skills have grown and I hope to finish book 3 in around 4 months, though to be safe I'm aiming to get it in under 5. That means I'm going to very tentatively claim I'm aiming for a May release.
What am I doing now?
- Paperback for Secrets of the Hearthwood
- Audiobook for Zeal of the Mind and Flesh
- Reorganize my notes
- Finish fleshing out the book 3 final outline
- Making maps for the rest of the continent.
- Finish fleshing out the local cosmology around the elf planet of the Ten Thousand Worlds. I've finally settled on a naming scheme so I can actually start mentioning those in book 3.
That third step is going to take the longest, but is also where I'm hoping to amp up my productivity the most. The notes I had pre-book 1 release had information on every Spellheart book up to book 6, though I've long since retconned or tweaked things to the point that those notes are no longer useful.
We're beyond the level of content that I can keep in my head, so I desperately need to take the time and go over both books to make sure I'm not leaving anything behind. If there's anything you guys want to read about or an aspect of the story you find interesting, comment below and I'll add in my notes that it's something readers want to see. Some things are set in stone, but in many cases, I can find a way to fiddle with where in the world Theo goes to make things happen.
Fun fact, Secrets of the Hearthwood ended somewhere near the 60% mark of what I'd originally envisioned. Early on in the writing I had to restructure the story once I realized how much ground I had to cover. That's all going to go into book 3 instead, and I'll hopefully be able to tie up the Hearthwood trilogy. That won't be the end of the series mind you, just the end of our adventures in the Hearthwood before we venture out into the wider world.
Anyhow, I'll be on social media the next few days after this release. I'll be on here to answer questions, on my email, and also on Reddit (shout out to r/HaremFantasyNovels).
Facebook doesn't seem to like me very much and banned my old account, but I'll see if I can get back on there for the fans who only use that site for social media.
