My Writing Future

Now that I’m two weeks past the launch of The Hunted Assassin, it’s time to start thinking about the future. What are my long and short term goal? What is the next writing project? I’m a big planner and very goal oriented, and I like to at least make an attempt at some realistic projections. As an example, I’ve set a goal to write every day this year (again-I’ve done it the last two years), regardless if I’m writing on a story or just laying down garbage words. Another goal is to write more than 700,000 words this year. Last year, I hit a little over 600,000 words, which blew my goal out of the water. I’d love to surpass the goal again this year.

But, for the time being, I need to get rolling on my next writing project. Back when I was finishing up with The Hunted Assassin, I’d slated the sequel to Silo Saga: Recoil to come up next. And until just the other day, I had been working in that direction. Then something happened. I realized that there are far too many of my own stories and worlds to explore – so many in fact – that I don’t think I’ll ever get to them all. So, why should I continue to spend time writing in another authors created environment? If I spend the next three to four months coming up with a sequel to Recoil, it’ll be just that much longer before I can get back to my other priorities. Besides, Hugh Howey is doing just fine without my added revenue to his bottom line.

So, any Silo Saga: Recoil sequel is indefinitely on hold. This will free me up to work on my own stuff. As I wrote The Hunted Assassin, my mind constantly jumped ahead to what kinds of series sequels could fly in that new world. In fact, I’ve already outlined the next two Jaxon Rasner books. They are going to be a blast to write. But, Jaxon will not be back in action until next year. January, specifically. Between now and then, I am going to work on the sequel to Linear Shift!

Linear Shift is special to me. It was my first published novel and is what kickstarted this crazy new career path, albeit the second career that it is. Since finishing Part 4 back in February of 2015, I’ve tinkered with multiple paths for its sequel. Writing in a time travel world, where an alternate history is now established, the sky is the limit. I have a ton of wild ideas on where to take the series. But first, I need to address some immediate issues that I’ve left dangle at the end of Linear Shift. This first sequel novel will mainly focus on Peter and how he’s coping with the changes in his new world. Inevitably, Peter will have to climb back into Epson’s travel box again. From what I’ve brainstormed just this morning, Peter will be thrust into yet another action packed adventure. Obviously, the kernel is all that exists at this point, and I plan on working through a detailed outline over the next two to three weeks. Actual writing will begin no later than August 1st.

Beyond the next Linear Shift novel, I’ll most likely roll back to the next Jaxon Rasner novel beginning in January. After that, I’m thinking about a sequel to The Borrowed Souls, then back to Jaxon Rasner. That’s what I’ve got planned for 2017 at the moment.

Now, in addition to all that, I do plan on writing a few shorter novels based on a number of new story ideas that I have. They won’t be novellas-short, but they will certainly be shorter than the 128,000-word behemoth that Linear Shift became. James Patterson is onto something with his new BookShots, and I’d like to write a few of them interspersed with my longer novel works.

So, get in, sit down and buckle up – it’s going to be a wild ride!