Goals

I've picked up a lot of new followers over the last week or so. Welcome to all of you, and I hope you can tolerate my inane ramblings long enough to pick up a copy of one of my books ;-)

Those of you who've been following for a while will know that I set myself hard goals and do my best to stick to them. Despite my best efforts, my goals for 2014 have had to change. I simply don't believe I'll manage to get three books released next year, as planned.

I've had to re-think my goals, taking into consideration various demands on my time.

In 2014, we will be seeing the end of the Locked Within Trilogy, as the third novel in the series, Final Hope, hits the shelves late next year. This is really going to be the highlight of my year, from a writing point of view. It's the end of years of hard work, and I hope as many of you as possible will join me to see Nathan's story end in style.

I will also be self-publishing the first book in a new series. Lady Raven is a steampunk fantasy novel for teens, featuring my first female protagonist, Cora Ravenell, who decides to oppose an oppressive Empire in order to save her mother. There'll be swashbuckling, sword fights, magic, and flying pirate ships! Much of my writing time at the moment is being spent working on this book, and I'll be hiring a professional editor to help me get the story ready for publication.

But I will still be working with a traditional publisher. With the goal of having it queried in time for a 2015 release, I will be starting a new series of urban fantasy mystery novels about Eddie Carver, an ex-SWAT officer assigned to Boston's paranormal crimes unit, SPIRIT (Special Paranormal Investigation, Research and Intervention Taskforce), and his partner Lorna McCain, a paranormal who has to live with daily prejudice and lifestyle restrictions due to her supernatural nature. Unlike the Locked Within Trilogy, the Carver and McCain books will be more open-ended, with each book being fairly standalone. 

In addition to that, I have a couple of ideas that could work either as e-serials, or as a novel series. One is a futuristic thriller set in a world with a pulp 1920s aesthetic, sort of a Count of Monte Cristo sort of story. The other is going to be quite a dark series about a travelling group of monster hunters, with which I hope to experiment with the boundaries of the kinds of content and stories I usually tell.

I've never been one for resting on my laurels. Seeing my first series come to an end just makes me want to write even more. I'm looking forward to what's to come.