On Friday I mentioned that I’ve had a number of distractions this past week that slowed me down. I should also mention that I hit a point in Halls of Power that was… emotionally distressing to me. I’ve worked past it, but I’ve ended up with only about 35,000 words, which is short of where I wanted to be. Yes, this means I hit my 12,500 words a week goal, but I was hoping to get more than that. Still, this is a lot of work done.

Halls of Power is also turning out to be stressful in general. This is mostly because I’m trying to tie up so many plot threads to a satisfying conclusion. Sure, I have everything fairly well planned out and feel that it’s a good conclusion, but there’s just that nagging sense of terror that I’ll miss something important, or that it’ll come across as tone-deaf. I did mention I’m a worrywart, right?

Now on to less stressful discussions! This post was written ahead of time because I’m going to the in-laws for Mother’s Day. I also had the picture of the World Tree that Jackie Felix did for Before the Godsrage printed, mounted on foamboard, and framed, as shown below with my cat investigating it (16 x 20 inch picture).

The audiobook of Ancient Ruins has been doing astoundingly well, as I had no idea what to expect from it. I’d heard that audiobooks were huge, but this is my first real experience with them. The audiobook of Spells of Old has entered post-production, but this could take several weeks. I hope to have it out sooner than later, but we’d best expect it to be out in July, considering how ACX takes their own sweet time reviewing the files (I honestly don’t blame them, they want to make sure the sound is good before putting it up).

After leaving up the next-series poll for a week, I have my numbers and priority. I’m going to be releasing Born a Queen after Halls of Power, and it very well may be ready before Before the Godsrage is complete as well. As I finish it, I’m debating whether to do Through the Fire or a sequel to Born a Queen, it’ll likely depend on how confident I’m feeling at that point. Fantasy has been my niche thus far, so I may choose to focus on Through the Fire. Still, the priority list is Halls of Power and Before the Godsrage, Born a Queen, then Through the Fire, then Sisters of Radiance. If you voted for one of those, I can pretty well guarantee that they’ll be written. I also very well may have the first three done this year, since BaQ mostly needs edits/expanding.

I also mentioned mulling over a Patreon. For the time being, I’m not going to put one up. I didn’t explain things properly before, but I think I had better. For my books to be enrolled in Kindle Unlimited, they cannot be available in any other text-based electronic format on the internet. I can’t control pirates, but I can’t sell them through any other distributors or make them available to fans on my web site, or through a Patreon. This was why I was mulling over giving access to first-drafts, because if my books aren’t enrolled in KU, my income from direct sales is also halved. I can release them ‘wide’ as other authors call it or on other online markets, but for Fantasy that isn’t as big of a concern (though it can be good, I admit I don’t know for certain).

However, the income from KU has been on a steady decline for the last several years, according to charts I’ve seen from other authors. If it drops too much lower, I’m going to drop out of KU and go ‘wide’, as it were. At this point I could release content with more confidence. I’m going to start stockpiling some short stories and such after I’m done with Halls of Power and Before the Godsrage, primarily to be given out via Patreon. If I do this, I will release them in anthologies eventually, but it’s fairly far in the future at this point. Still, it’s a plan. Plans can change, though.

Finally, I’m going to PaizoCon in Seattle at the end of this month. I’m going to be puttering about with a couple of spare physical copies of Ancient Ruins and Spells of Old if anyone happens to be there and spot me, and I’ll be attending a fair number of panels. Primarily I’m going to be hanging out and relaxing, enjoying the atmosphere. If you find me and I’m not specifically on the way to something, I’m more than happy to answer questions.

So anyway, lots of updates there, hope everyone has a great day! Oh, and second chapter of Into the Eternal Wood goes out to the mailing list Monday morning (GMT – 7).