July Wrap-up

Overview

That’s a wrap on July!

See that sword? If you don’t follow me on social, you may not know that the sword is a reminder to me to keep writing. I purchased it when I was writing my first book, The Chronicles of Leshem. Although that book will never see the light of day, the sword reminded me of my novel and motivated me to keep writing that book. I continue to use the sword as a reminder to write, even if it will never directly inspire a new book.

I’m beating the heat this summer with a few portable air conditioners. The dogs thank me for the purchase, as it would have become blistering hot inside the house without some form of AC. How did July go? It went by in a flash. Are months getting shorter? Someone get Stephen King on the phone, because I’m pretty sure something took some days off the calendar and we’re all pretending it didn’t happen. Can you honestly say you remember all 31 of those days? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Dogs and fitness are status quo. I enjoy the exercise I’m getting with them and choose to focus most of my waking energy on my next books (more on that below).

Publishing Status

Writing: I finished the second novella from the Genesis world, sent the story out to beta readers, received one of the stories back and have completed most of the edits. Overall it’s going very well. My editor has The Collective and I should be getting it back soon so I can begin working on the final draft heading into publication. I’ve begun writing the second book in Armageddon’s Descendants and am over 4000 words into it. Although I’d written 30,000 words in a previous draft (many years ago), the characters, the writing and story didn’t feel right, so I decided to start over.

I also snuck in some outline plans for The Genesis Project Origins. If you read The Genesis Project, you’ll recall that Doctor Charles Minton was one of the original operators on the project, but couldn’t handle the nightmares and hung himself. But is that what really happened? You’ll have to read the novella to find out the true origin of the machine.

If you haven’t read The Genesis Project, what are you waiting for? Buy it here!

Did you read about how Fitness shaped my writing journey? Read about it here!

Editing: I’m working on edits for the novellas from the Genesis world, currently titled Monsoon Rendezvous and Cognitive Breach. One of the stories and a short story will go out to the Kickstarter backers as part of the bonus for hitting my funding goals. They will go to the editor on August 5th and be part of a 3 book release this fall.

Marketing: Still working on this and prioritizing more books over social media content. I’m playing around with Amazon ads and through some consultation, believe my book cover doesn’t represent the book that well. It’s too science fictiony for people to click and it’s not the right kind of science fiction for those who want science fiction. I’ll be finalizing art in the coming weeks for a new cover for TGP, the two novellas, and The Collective.

Books on the Go

The World of The Genesis Project:
Manuscript: Two short stories and two novellas are complete. Most have come back from beta readers and are in final edits before heading off to the copy editor for a final draft. I just commissioned the cover art for these stories, as I plan to release the digital copies on Amazon, etc. in the Fall 2024.
Publication: The Genesis Project is live and on sale everywhere. The two novellas are expected to go on sale this Fall (Monsoon Rendezvous and Cognitive Breach).

Armageddon’s Descendants – Book 1: The Collective
Manuscript: The novel is currently with my editor and will be coming back for final revisions soon. Then I’ll be preparing to launch a Kickstarter campaign for this project. The second book in the trilogy is in the works. I started it yesterday and have already written over 4000 words.

Knights of Truipis:
Manuscript: The first draft is completed. I’ll go back to this one likely in 2025.

Date of Death:
Manuscript: The first draft is complete at just over 104,000 words! It’s in the cue for 2025.

July Update for Dogs!