2022 was an interesting year for me. After my last State of the Writing post, I went to my first 20BookVegas conference and signing in November, and it was incredible. January 2022 saw the passing of the great David Farland, whose teaching had a significant impact on my writing. Then, in February, I went to Superstars Writing Seminar in Colorado for the first time. That was even more amazing, plus I got to meet so many incredible authors and editors. Because of my attendance at Superstars, I was eligible to submit to their annual anthology, this year done in honor of Dave Farland, and called "Of Wizards and Wolves" In March and April I worked on and submitted a story for it based off events in the "Teen Magic" series, titled "To Mend or Rend."
Writing "To Mend or Rend" rejuvenated my interest in the Teen Magic series, so I finally settled down to writing it, with a 6 year plan inspired by my time at the 20Books conference. It included writing 2 of them annually for the next 4 years. By the last week of June, the first book was still only half finished, so I did a marathon week and put down nearly 10,000 words a day to get it finished by the deadline. Unfortunately, my original plan of writing book 2 in 2022 did not work out.
Once autumn came around, so did the news that "To Mend of Rend" had been accepted to the Wolves and Wizards anthology, (available for order now). In November, I once again attended 20Books Vegas, and came away with plans to get my Patreon active and hopefully run some kickstarters in 2023. But of course, to do any of that, I need to actually write books. News on that front will be in the next post.
So, without further ado, here is where everything stands as of the end of 2022.
Short Stories
The only short story I have written this year is "To Mend of Rend" - a Rouk & Reed story. I have also published my previous short stories in a collection titled "Nameless", which is available on Amazon and my store in print, and most everywhere in ebook.
- Nameless: A short story collection: Complete and available here.
- To Mend or Rend: A Rouk & Reed story: Available in "Of Wizards and Wolves" anthology, available here.
Rouk & Reed (Previously referred to as "Teen magic series")
This is a planned 8 book YA series of what will hopefully be somewhat shorter books following a pair of friends through Jr. High and High school. I am planning to create it in two 4 book arcs. I completed the 1st draft of book 1 in June, and have started drafting book 2.
Expected completion date: unknown.
R&R series prewrite: 50%
R&R 1: 1st draft: 100%, edits: 0%
R&R 2: 1st draft: 10%
Miguel & Mariah
The Omnibus was released last year and is available in ebook on most ebook sites. Physical copies are available on amazon or my store. All Daughter of Zyanya titles (except Maravilla) are available in ebook or paperback on Amazon.
I am hoping to find a good way to start creating audiobook editions.
- Aura of Dawn, Amaranth Dawn, Aeonian Dreams, Abiding Destiny, Daughter of Zyanya Omnibus, Guardian: Complete and available in paperback and ebook. Potential audiobook in the future.
Fire & Water series (working title) - All my focus has been on getting AD1-3 out, so there are no updates here.
These books were meant to be straight up Romances, but turns out I can't get more than a sentence into a book before throwing in magic, so they will be Fantasy Romance. :) Each of the three books will address one of three siblings.
FW 1: I have not made any progress on this book in 2022. This book was the first to try to do an honest prewrite before actually writing. The writing of it was so much fun, however, that it ran away with me. I am currently retro-fitting it with missing storylines. 1st Draft: 60% complete, Pre-writing 60% complete. Expected completion date: unknown.
FW 2 & 3: not started
Firestone series (working title) - There are no updates here. It's still waiting on other projects to clear out.
This is an expected 3 book high fantasy series. It was meant to be stand alone, but the world and words expanded to fill half a book, and I wasn't even 1/3 of the way through 1/3 of the character's arcs, so I split it into a trilogy.
-FS 1: about 75% complete on the first draft. This story is similar to AD1 in that I hadn't learned to pre-write when I began it, and so it is also stuck in retro-fitting a pre-write and structure. Expected completion date: unknown.
-FS 2 & 3: not started.
"Comic" Books
Paw Prints: Currently available in ebook, hard cover, and soft cover one Amazon
Paw of Power: Digital drawings are about 50% completed. Still need to do the final inking, and will likely be released in black and white first, with a colored version later. This project has been shelved indefinitely
Path of Paws: Initial storyline has been created. After that is initial sketches.
