I have really been neglecting this blog of late. I’ve set my sights on doing updates by the first of the month and the fifteenth, so I was due for an entry last week, but instead I opted to just work on my next novel a bit more. I know that it’s all still a bit confusing considering that I haven’t released my last novel yet, but the life of a novelist is one that is always ongoing. I don’t have a solid release date yet for Terminus Cycle, but I do have a window that will be somewhere in mid-March to mid-April, if that helps. There will be a pre-order page up on Amazon as soon as it’s ready and you’ll hear about it (probably a lot) from me.
Part of the job of any novelist is to read as much as humanly possible. It’s for enjoyment, inspiration, ideas and just to get a lay of the land in the market. I grew up reading science fiction but since college I kind of veered more towards literary fiction and postmodern stuff. This meant that over the last few months I’ve been reading as much science fiction as possible to see what is selling and what is getting traction out there. Some of it is good, some of it is great and some of it is frustrating.
Series are a big thing right now because there is an audience for them and they tend to be gobbled up by readers. This is of course the market that I’m looking to go after when I release Terminus Cycle in a matter of weeks. Originally I had planned on releasing two books this year; Terminus Cycle and the follow-up. Now after some discussion with my wonderful wife, Lori, we’ve talked about me cutting back on the outside writing that I’ve been doing (you know, the stuff that pays bills) and focus on trying to churn out three this year. It’s an aggressive goal but it is an achievable one, especially after all that I’ve seen and experienced in the lead-up to releasing Terminus Cycle.
Realistically I’m looking at a Spring release for Terminus Cycle, a Summer release for the second one and a late-Fall to early-Winter release date for the third one. That is a lot of writing, a lot of revising and a lot of work for me, but I’m confident in my work and believe that at least having the second one out as close as possible to the first will be a good idea.
I guess I have some work to do.