September?! I like September but not when it shows up on my doorstep without warning. The last few days here in New England have had a touch of fall in the air. Temperature has dropped to near perfect, and the smell of nature changing starts biting at the senses. It’s beautiful but means winter is coming. But enjoy the moment, right? Anyways, here are some updates on future projects and other things…
Book Two?
But that change in season means I’m behind! I had originally planned on releasing my second book this fall…as in right now. Life happens, timelines got pushed back, and I was distracted. BUT I’m back on a steady schedule of writing and prodding away at book two (currently titled Zero-Trust), and am planning on releasing this one in Spring of 2025. It’ll follow LiLo (the rogue hacker from HOST) before the events of HOST and leans into her backstory and origins. This time she’ll be on the run from a hitman. Worlds will collide, shots will be fired, and not many will survive. It leans more into the thriller genre with no sci-fi (saving that for the next few books). I’m plucking away at a first draft which I’m about 50% through. Aiming to have that done by mid October, then start the revision process. Spring release will be tight but doable. More updates to come.
Book Titles?
Originally I had the titles for the next two books in the “LiLo Series” set. The next being Zero-Trust (which I’m still with!) and the third book was going to be Zero-Day BUT that’s also the title of a David Baldacci novel (f******ck!). I was so excited for that title and being the book end of LiLo’s story. I also had a perfect setup/payoff in the next book for it (did I mention f*********ck yet?!) It was perfect and in the bigger picture of things (yes, there’s a bigger novel picture planned) was a perfect ending to a series of stand-alone but interconnected books. So that was a bummer BUT goes to show that doing title research ahead of time and putting some effort into naming your novel is important. We chat about this on the latest Writer Syndrome episode about Book Titles which is out now!
Time Travel?
As I’ve been working on the next project I’ve been getting ideas for future stories. One in particular I have planned is a time travel novel. I love time travel stories and have (what I think) is a great plot / story idea that I want to tackle. It was almost my second book but I decided against it. I wanted to do more research and honestly get better at the whole story telling process. Basically, I didn’t think I was ready for it. But it’s been popping up more and more for me, more ideas sneaking their way in, which I’ll jot down in my digital notebook of thoughts/ideas/notes. More and more of the story is coming into focus which has me excited AND it’s fitting nicely into the overall universe I’m building. The best part of the research is getting to revisit time travel stories, I’ve been watching everything from Back to the Future to Terminator, and re-reading stuff like the awesome short by Robert A. Heinlein “–All You Zombies–” and my personal favorite time travel novel “The End of Eternity” by Isaac Asimov. This is just a long tease for a future story which won’t come out until 2026…or…maybe… it’s already out?! (That’s a time travel joke, it’s not out yet).
The End.
That’s all. As I progress on Zero-Trust and start on book three I plan to do monthly updates WHICH I’m going to include (with other stuff) in my monthly newsletter WHICH I plan to launch before the end of the year. So sign up for it at the bottom of this page. The end.
