5:56pm

Well, we’re two-thirds through the holiday season, and I hope it has treated you and yours well so far.

By the by, I don’t count it by a strict number of days; I count it by milestones. We’re past Thanksgiving and Christmas with only New Year’s remaining… therefore, two-thirds.

So, I’m not going to bury the lead here. I have tried and tried to re-write The Fires of Aurelius… and I can’t. I thought I was far enough removed from it and sufficiently excited about it that I could bring the series back from the dead and make it what I always wanted it to be.

I was wrong.

Cole & Srexx will remain dead, and I’ll put Fires and the complete series omnibus back to available status shortly.

I regret that the series is in the state that it’s in, but at this point, I would rather keep writing than force myself to try to “fix” Cole & Srexx and possibly ruin my interest and drive for writing altogether. That almost happened when I forced myself to write Fires the first time, back in 2021.

Right, then… moving on!

So, if I won’t be re-writing Fires in January, what will I be writing? That is an excellent question, and to answer it involves discussing another perennial goal of mine: the consistent, daily writing habit.

As part of my quest to establish the afore-mentioned habit, I devised a Creative Calendar. The idea is that I devote each month of the year to a specific series, and to keep from getting burned out on a specific genre (such as Fantasy or Sci-Fi), I alternated months.

The original plan looked something like this:

January: Cole & Srexx
February: Primogenitor Saga
March: Shepherd Security Services
April: Histories of Drakmoor (the second quintet)

By removing Cole & Srexx from the rotation, I have a Sci-Fi opening for next month (i.e. January, 2025). Now, I could move Shepherd Security Services into that slot and proceed without a second thought… but I don’t like that I haven’t written and published Tribunal yet.

Right now, I’m leaning very heavily in favor of writing Tribunal next month and the next novel in Shepherd Security Services in February. I may punt the next Primogenitor Novel to later in the year and write the first book of Drakmoor’s second quintet in March.

But honestly, the plan is very, very nebulous beyond February.

I want to get to a point where everyone who’s interested can follow what I’m writing when and knows when to expect the next book of their preferred series… at least, that’s the plan with my Creative Calendar. This next year (2025) will be the beta version, especially as I will be ironing out whether to repeat the same six series during the second half of the year or start writing some of the new series I’ve been world-building.

With all the LitRPG I’ve been reading, I really want to start working up the second shared world I want to create… which will be LitRPG. I’ve done a little work on it already, and I think I have the base mechanics ironed out. But I haven’t looked at those notes in a while, so don’t quote me on that.

I’ve been world-building a new Epic Fantasy series even longer than the LitRPG (complete with a new magic system), though, and I love the premise and everything I’ve worked up so far. I’m really excited to start exploring that world.

Hrmmm… decisions, decisions.

For right now, the plan for January and February is fairly firm. Tribunal in January and Lynxeen in February. I’ll have a rough idea for the rest of the year once I get those written.

All right. I think I’ve rambled on enough. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for sticking with me.

I offer my best wishes to you and yours. Stay safe out there.