Back when I was writing Silent Victor, book 4 in my Clarke Lantham Mystery series (the stories all stand alone–feel free to pick up any one that looks interesting in order to sample them!) I discovered, in the middle of the novel, that there was a book missing in the series–a book I had to write in order to be able to write the rest of Silent Victor. So I put Silent Victor on hold and spent a few weeks writing Smoke Rings. Once that book was done, my creative gears unclogged, and I was able to finish the book I initially set out to write.
Creativity works that way sometimes.
I just never expected it to happen with The Kabrakan Ascendency.
This is my BIG series. It’s a single story, five books long, and I’m dead in the middle of it.
And, yesterday, I discovered that I’m not, actually, where I think I am.
It turns out there needs to be another book, away back at the beginning of the series, in order to set the stage for events that are unfolding in the book I’m writing (The Reeves Directive) and in the one that will follow (no title for that one yet).
So, just like I did with the Lantham mysteries, The Reeves Directive is going on hold while I scroll back and write The Briggs Defection–well, mostly. I’m going to continue working on one of the storylines for The Reeves Directive, since it needs to catch up to the others. Expect to see the word count on that one grow gradually, while the word count on The Briggs Defection grows rapidly.
You know, for years I was scared of coming back to this series because I wasn’t sure I could handle how big it was. It’s turning out I wasn’t entirely crazy–but instead of being frightening, this is seriously fun.
In other news, I had a lovely evening on the beach under a stormy sunset. Working my way back up to my normal 5-miles-per-day walking regimen. Still got a bit of the cold hanging on, which curtails my activity and is still keeping me out of the recording booth (dammit). However, I sense the armies of virus particles are now fleeing before the awesome power of my leukocytes, so it’s only a matter of time now.
Meantime, here’s the damage I’ve done to the innocent blank virtual pages that live in my computer.
New words on The Reeves Directive: 0
New words on The Briggs Defection: 3783
The Briggs Defection — 4.2%
3,783 / 90000 words
jdsawyer
After a childhood in academia, J. Daniel Sawyer declared his independence by dropping out of high school and setting off on a series of adventures in the bowels of the film industry, the venture capital culture of silicon valley, surfing safaris, bohemians, burners, historians, theologians, adventurers, climbers, drug dealers, gangbangers, and inventors before his past finally caught up to him.
Trapped in a world bookended by one wall falling in Berlin and other walls going up around suburbia and along national borders throughout the world, he rediscovered his deep love of history and, with it, and obsession with predicting the future as it grew aggressively out of the past.
To date, this obsession has yielded over thirty books and innumerable short stories, the occasional short film, nearly a dozen podcasts stretching over a decade and a half, and a career creating novels and audiobooks exploring the world through the lens of his own peculiar madness, in the depths of his own private forest in a rural exile, where he uses the quiet to write, walk on the beach, and manage a production company that brings innovative stories to the ears of audiences across the world.
For news and free stories, sign up for his occasional newsletter. Or find his contact info, podcasts, and more on his home page at http://www.jdsawyer.net
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