It’s a little late to give full plans for 2020, but to be honest, I wouldn’t have been able to tell anyone even half of what I have planned at the beginning of the year. I must add that these are my current plans, not something which I can guarantee will happen. My muse is a fickle mistress, and there’s only so much I can do to control her.

First off, let’s start with the two items that I have roughly scheduled, Queen of Diamonds and Hives & Heroism.

• Queen of Diamonds is complete and awaiting cover art. That’s anticipated to arrive on or before May 21st, at which point I’ll set up the pre-order… though I just barely realized I haven’t written a description. I need to get on that. My anticipated release date is June 1st, but no promises. Until I have the art in my hands, I’m sitting on this.
• Hives & Heroism has been having a rough time of late, partly because of COVID-19, partly because of the recent loss of Baloo. I’m around 2/3 of the way through the book and building up speed bit by bit, so I should have it done in time for the late-June release date I have scheduled. Once I’m sure that it isn’t going to suck, I’ll schedule the pre-order, hopefully for early July.

A few other items of note are going to be listed below, but these are more variable in timing.

• I’m working on an omnibus for Mantles of Power, and hopefully will be able to get it out sometime this summer.
• Recording of Queen’s Move and Queen of Diamonds is scheduled, but exact dates haven’t been confirmed quite yet. While I’m certain they’ll be recorded by early August (absent a disaster), when they’ll go live is an entirely different question. Unfortunately, Audible’s publishing process has grown extremely inconsistent of late, with some books waiting for as much as 4 months at this point, and others going through in less than a week.

Now, all of that is interesting to you, I’m certain, but that doesn’t explain what my actual plans are for the rest of the year. I’m going to break this into two parts, one for the summer, and one for the fall and winter (since that’s more up in the air).

Summer Plans

Once Hives & Heroism is sent to the editor, I’m taking a break. I briefly considered trying not to write at all during that period, then I broke out cackling. I wouldn’t last a week doing no writing at all. Instead, I’m going to focus on a couple of things, like writing an RPG adventure I’ve been pondering for ages, as well as a number of short stories that I’ve been pondering. Several of these are set in Ancient Dreams, but I don’t know if they’re going to happen. I don’t know how long the break will be, probably somewhere between a week and a month.

After my break, I’m going to write something else for a change of pace. This will either be Dusk Gate, which you may recall art of, or turning Second Contact into a full novel. Maybe both, but we’ll see.

Fall/Winter Plans

Once my summer plans are dealt with, I’m returning to Lilith’s Shadow to finish up the fifth and sixth books that I have planned. This isn’t to say that I won’t publish more for Lilith after those, but those complete the primary story arc I had in mind when I prepared to write Queen’s Move. I suspect this will take most of the remainder of the year, if not into 2021, but I’m not certain about that.

After that… I’m not entirely certain what I’m going to do. I have a bunch of things in mind, from a second trilogy of Beesong Chronicles, to a full series around Second Contact, to a bit of tragedy in Ashes of Time. I really don’t know for sure… but one series I really want to return to in 2021 is Through the Fire. I have between three and five books planned for it (probably on the lower end), and I’d like to see how Ruethwyn’s relationships will develop when she has time for romance. Of course, she’s a past master of sticking her head in the sand, so who knows how it’d go?

In any case, my plans, as always, are nebulous. But I’m going to do my best to keep you all informed, and write books for entertainment. Even when my inner sucker for tragedy is trying to force its way out.