I’ve been getting myself out of my writing drought bit by bit, and have Queen’s Gambit up to just a little over 7500 words. Not as much as I’d like, but certainly better than nothing! There’s going to be a lot to resolve in this book, and I really want to do it right. This isn’t necessarily the end of Lilith’s journey, but it’s hopefully going to be a good spot to rest while I work on other projects.
With any luck, we’re also a bit over a week from the release of Chosen of Chaos! Yes, there’s two weeks left on the pre-order, but that’s primarily in case my editor doesn’t get it back to me in time. I’m confident that I’ll be getting it back in time to upload it this week, and I’m excited to see what people think of Evelyn. She’s probably the single most powerful protagonist I’ve written since Ancient Dreams, so challenging her isn’t the easiest thing in the world, but I enjoyed writing it a lot.
I hope you all have a great week!
Edit: Apparently luck may not be with me. After I went to bed last night (this post scheduled), the editor emailed me and let me know that they’d lost power and were in a rural area that got hit by the recent storms in the southern USA. This means that I won’t get Chosen of Chaos back until power is up, so it could be delayed to the 7th or even longer. If it gets close, I’ll consider uploading the version I sent to the editor… we’ll see. Personally, I’m more concerned about their safety than hitting an arbitrary deadline.
Ancient Dreams 
Hi Benjamin! I just wanted to congratulate you on your job well done with Queen’s Journey. I lost a good amount of sleep while trying to finish it (just couldn’t put it down), but it was well worth it.
There’s a lot of strings to tie up in the next book but I have no doubt you have a genius plan on how to do that and I can’t wait to read Queen’s Gambit. On the subject of Lilith’s love life, I read that you weren’t sure what’ll happen next…so if I may, I’d like to make a suggestion: whatever happens, make sure Lilith works hard for it and shows progress of growth. I have faith in her character (she’s a smart cookie) that she’ll learn the hard lessons about love and come out wiser, more compassionate, and stronger. I just really hope you’re not going to let her run away from her love dilemmas. Relationships should be tested, hearts will be broken, but love will triumph (in the long term at least). Hopefully we can all learn from her lessons too. (You did a great job with Rachel’s and Gina’s revelation–tear jerker because we’ve all messed up before and can sympathize.)
On a side note, I hope this will also be the case for Amber (a different kind of love, of course). I can see her emotionally struggling to let love and compassion in for Litith (because she doesn’t want to be alone anymore). I’m cheering for her and hope that she grows as well.
Anyway, I love your books. I’m trying to write too but it’s proven difficult with other priorities fighting for my time (plus I’m a beginner and it’s definitely not easy to write a good story). I wish you the best of luck with all your upcoming books!
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I’m glad you enjoyed Queen’s Journey!
Regarding Lilith, I intend for her to take strides forward, and certainly not have things handed to her on a silver plate. Now, her relationships… that’s going to be tricky. To be perfectly honest, the major sticking point isn’t going to be Lilith herself, and more the other characters not being willing to accept one another (which could drive her to say no and delay on making a decision for a while). I’m curious to see how it works out myself, because in all honesty, I have 2-3 scenes of the book worked out, and the rest… I see where the characters take me in the process.
As for writing, here’s some advice I’ve heard from other authors about writing: Even 100 words a day totals 36,500 words a year, and 40,000 words is the minimum for the novel category in the Hugo awards. Also, the hardest book to write is your first one. Above all, just try to /finish/ the book. Don’t worry about how good or bad it is, focus on finishing the first one, because then you’ve proven that you CAN finish a book to yourself. I find that makes all the difference in the world.
I hope you enjoy my future books as well, and good luck in your endeavors!
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Monsieur Benjamin Medrano, i loved the new Lilith book! Poor lilith.đŸ˜‚ Secondly, how are you doing? Proper manners and all.
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Heh. I’m doing alright, working my way through some writer’s block, and pretty excited for the release of Chosen of Chaos! It’ll be out Tuesday. ^_^
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Obligatory, excited to read Chosen of Chaos, Queen’s Gambit, and Soul Bound’s book 2 (whenever they come out)
Really though, just wanted to say that you seem to be a cool and genuine guy. Hope you continue to stay humble on building your book empire :)
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Thank you for your kind words! I may put the Prologue of Chosen of Chaos into the blog post tomorrow as a teaser, but we’ll see!
And I try to be a nice person. The whole ‘treat others the way you want to be treated’ thing, at least. And I’ve asked my friends to give me a swift kick in the arse if I start getting too big for my britches.
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