News and updates to share. Let’s start with short stories first.
If you’re on my mailing list, you have The Domes of Aeroel, the first short story in the Tales of Sarco series, as part of the package. The second short story in the series, The Shadows of Aeroel, is currently in beta. Feedback for the story is scheduled to come in by early September. The current target date for releasing Shadows is October 15, 2016 — the sixth month anniversary of the novel Edge of Oblivion.
The Shadows of Aeroel is set after Edge of Oblivion and brings back the characters from the first short story. Not only will Shadows point back at some of the events of Oblivion, but it will also point forward to things that happen in Into the Void. My goal, of course, is a six-part saga of novel and short story awesomeness.
Okay, let’s talk novels.
Book 2 of the Sarco series, Into the Void, is progressing nicely through the publisher. I received my first round of edits over the weekend (I’m working with the same excellent editor that helped me through Book 1) and I’m knee-deep in them right now. I’ve also had preliminary contact with the cover artist over the possible direction of that all-important part of the book.
That leads into a bit of bad news: Into the Void will be releasing a little later than anticipated. The original expected release date was mid-April of 2017, but it’s now looking more like mid-May. It’s not drastically later, but it does mean you’ll have to hold off a bit longer. It’s not all bad, though: the reason for the delay is a very good one, and it’s only a month. (It won’t make April any less agonizing for me, though.)
And Book 3? I’m excited to announce that it’s officially in beta. The same core group of readers who helped me revise Edge of Oblivion and Into the Void are going at it one last time to put the finishing touches on the series. I’ll be hearing back from them in the coming months.
So what happens next? What am I going to do when this trilogy is done? I’ve been thinking about that. There are a couple of projects that I’ve been working on, including a possible future fantasy novel (that’s right: fantasy) that I may talk more about some other time. More immediately, I’m beginning the outlining process for another science fiction project. I can’t say a lot about this project … yet. But soon enough, I will.