11:59pm

Yes… once again, I’m using Webmaster Fakery to say that I’m writing this on September 1st, when in fact it’s fifteen minutes past midnight.

I’m sure you’re shocked and aghast. I will wait for the feeling to pass.

Right, then…

I’ve made some great strides on the website work. I thought I was ready to flip everything over to point to this site… but… I was about as wrong as the idea you can find an honest politician.

I still have several book pages that need storefront link updates, but I also need to upload the books that I’ve already updated… because I don’t want to touch Draft2Digital more than once. In case you don’t know, Draft2Digital is an aggregator, basically a distributor that will send my ebooks to as many storefronts as I allow them to.

Traditionally, I’ve advocated that indie authors should go direct to the Big 6 (Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, Kobo, and IngramSpark) while using Draft2Digital for everything else. I am changing that. I already have two profiles under my iTunes account, and I don’t want a third. Therefore, I will be distributing my books to Apple Books via Draft2Digital.

Honestly, Apple Books is the clunkiest of the Big 6, in my opinion, so this won’t be a major loss.

Given that I had somehow forgotten just how much I still have to do for the restructuring, I have updated my ‘go live’ date to the end of this week… since I am now writing once again. And of course, writing takes precedence.

So, let’s talk Torvalin!

As of this writing, Torvalin is sitting at 40,507 words, which is 42.09% of the way to my target word count, and I have updated the homepage accordingly. I’m something like 163 words into Chapter 18.

As I have said before, my “target word count” is more of a rough ballpark than a hard target chiseled in stone. I write to story completion, and I also like 100k+ stories. Sometimes, though, that just isn’t feasible without making the story feel bloated, and 96,250 words is a nice neighborhood to fall into.

The previous books in the series have been: 97,341 words (The Shepherd); 114,264 words (Colfyr); and 120,965 words (Lynxeen). Based on this, Torvalin will probably land somewhere between 110k and 120k words. I am totally fine with that.

I’m debating on trying to squeak in the next Primogenitor novel before the end of the year. Plus Tribunal.

I’m seriously on the fence about that, though, given that I haven’t established a consistent writing habit yet. I have pre-orders up for Vorcalix and Sol, and I don’t want to go through the headache of re-scheduling them on Amazon. Amazon is the only storefront that gets grouchy about pushing pre-orders further into the future, and I’ve already missed two (Fires in 2019 and Skullkeep in 2021). Amazon doesn’t track that, as far as I know, but I still don’t like breaking faith with people like that.

Oh!

I have apparently been spreading misinformation. The next Primogenitor novel will not be titled Omnia. It will be titled Vincit. The final Primogenitor novel will be titled Omnia. Yeah… that series is only going to be six books. At least for now. I may circle back around to it. I may not. We’ll see.

Given the list of ideas I really, really, REALLY want to write, I’m thinking not… but anything’s possible.

Once I get up through Sol written for Shepherd Security Services and both Primogenitor and Sorcerous Pursuits tied off, I’m looking at writing the second quintet of Drakmoor. That’s been sitting out there in my mind for too long, and as much as I don’t like the idea of that series being over (it’s my first one, you know), the story isn’t complete as it is right now.

We’ll see. This is basically just me brainstorming. Over the coming months, I’ll settle into a decision on where I’m going next with my stories… and of course… I’ll keep you updated here.

All right. I think I’ve rambled on for long enough. If you’re still with me, thanks for hanging in there.

I hope the days treat you and yours well. Stay safe out there.