It’s been a while since I posted about my WIP. I’m about 65% finished with the first draft for a novella titled The Blood Empress. It’s about the young woman who leads the Votainion Empire to war with the Alliance. This novella takes place right after the events in Book 2, The Rising. That novel will be out early next year and followed closely by The Blood Empress.
Initially I was only going to write Books 1-3 in the first trilogy of the Star Saga. The so called, First Generation trilogy of a nine book saga. But then I started realizing that there was an opportunity to fill in the gaps between the books and so I decided to write two novellas. One in between Book’s 1 and 2 and one in between Books 2 and 3. So as a reader you’re going to get five books instead of three, all set in the same time period of the Star Saga. Oh, and you also have a bunch of short stories set before the war, about Devon and the Silicants. That’s the anthology, Tales From Ocherva, Volume One.
By the time I finish all of that, I’ll be ready for a break. In all likelihood I’ll write something completely different. Either another Mystery or another SF book not related to the Star Saga or maybe a Vampire tale. Eventually I’ll come back to the Star Saga and start working on the remaining two books of the middle trilogy and a couple of novellas set in that time period.
Getting back to the WIP, I’ve recently gone off the outline in Act Three and now I’m writing as a Pantser for the last two acts. The good news about all that is that because it’s a smaller story, I can keep all the plot elements and some scenes in my head without a serious outline. Every time I sit down at lunch to write, I walk away with another thousand words on it. So the momentum is still there and building. My goal is to finish this first draft by the end of the year. That way I can start 2014 with revising both Book 2 The Rising and the novella, The Blood Empress.
Oh and here’s the latest cover idea for the novella. Again, just a thumbnail, but I like where it’s going.
