What Next?

Now that The Crossways is properly out, I thought I'd give a little update on my writing/publishing plans for the near future.

The biggest question you have is probably "When is book 3 coming out?" My plan is next October. "But that's a whole year away!" you might be saying. Yes, it is, but that's because Crannig Castle is not the next book. Espionage is. Espionage is a companion to Time Captives, but I believe it also works well as a stand-alone. It takes place at the same time as the end of The Crossways and the beginning of Crannig Castle, mentions the Time Captives a time or two, and sets up the political climate of the country of Briznom, something quite essential to Crannig Castle. But it's also a self-contained story. I really love this book. My plan is to release it sometime in May. I did something special for the cover a few weeks ago too, and I can't wait to show you.

Those two just need final beta reading and editing to be done, so I have other projects for actual writing. Right now, I'm almost done with a Sleeping Beauty retelling for the Rooglewood Press contest. I'm calling it Twisted Dreams right now, which makes perfect sense when you know what my twist is, but that twist is quite spoilery, so lets just say that it's partially inspired by certain episodes of Doctor Who. I do want to share an excerpt from the dialogue that I like, a funny bit. Liesel is my "Sleeping Beauty," Will is her prince, and Matthew is his younger brother (cast as Matt Smith, you can blame my sisters for that).

     A faint moan escaped his lips. His eyes opened, closed again, opened, focused on Liesel.

     A touch of a smile tinged her lips. “It works both ways.” She took Will’s hand and squeezed it gently. “I love you, Will.”

     “Nobody’s going to say that to me, will they?”

     Liesel glanced at Matthew as she helped Will up into a sitting position. “We do love you, Matthew, just not in that way.”

     “That’s a relief. That could have made things awkward.”

Matthew has to be my favorite. He amuses me. I love Will and Liesel too, though knowing what happens later, it really saddens me to write this period of their lives. 

Once I get Twisted Dreams sufficiently finished, I plan to type the Cassie story, my outer space dystopian and Camp NaNo project, into the computer, which means revising it. I love that story so much and I think it can be fantastic, but it does need a good revision. Once I've got that done, I'll probably write book 2 of the trilogy, which I loved better than book 1 before I'd really started writing book 1. Only I think I need to rework the storyline a bit.

Somewhere in here, I'm counting on my family and certain Espionage beta readers to help me figure out how to overcome the obstacles I'm facing in the sequel. I have point A and point B, but I'm at a loss as to how to get from one to the other. I really want to write it, though. And at some point, I'm hoping the "Storyless Storyboard Story" will finish taking shape in my mind so I can write it properly. I've figured out a lot of it, but I think I need to heed my gut instinct that it needs to simmer in my brain awhile longer before it becomes my primary writing project.

I think that's about all for now. No, I haven't given up on the idea of writing about Hanna and Sam, but it hasn't been on my mind in awhile, so it's not likely to happen any time soon. I've just got so many stories demanding to be written!