I think I have a Plan. It could even be called a Cunning Plan, as it dovetails the publication of Percival 3 (or as I like to call it, George III, the Mad One) nicely with some upcoming travel plans. However, it has one risk factor: it depends on my ability to write 15-20,000 words over the next two weeks. Should be doable, probably. The end of a book tends to go faster than the beginning, I find, because by the time I get this far, I’d damned well better have a pretty good idea of what’s going to happen next.
If I can do finish it by mid May, more or less, I can take two weeks off, revise, send it out to beta readers, revise again, and hopefully get it to my editor in mid-July. Things are blurrier after that, but I’d thinking publication in September should be feasible.
What would really help would if I spent less time reading when I’m supposed to be writing. That’s not entirely my fault; it happens because so many other authors keep writing so many excellent books.
Ones I’ve really liked lately include not one but two isekai, one LitRPG, and an alternate universe with time travel.
An isekai book is one where the main character (MC) finds themselves in another world, often for unexplained reasons, often permanently, often one with some aspects of feudal, medieval or otherwise old-time culture from our world, generally with some kind of magic, possibly with higher-tech than you’d expect from the setting. You couldn’t really find two isekai more different than Ilona Andrews’s This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me, and Casualfarmer’s Beware of Chicken. I don’t think much more needs to be said about the former than that it’s magnificent. It’s Andrews at the very top of their game, which, given their other books, is an enormously high hurdle to clear. (I say “they” because Ilona Andrews is a pen name for the joint work of married couple Ilona and Gordon Andrews.)
Beware of Chicken is, well, fluffier. It takes a subgenre I’m completely unfamiliar with, cultivation novels in which Chinese martial artists “cultivate” their power in a cut-throat environment, and turns it upside down by having the MC completely walk away from the world of cultivators. It focuses a lot on what it means to be a good person – I’m always a sucker for that because, well, *gestures vaguely at current events*. The BoC series also deserves to win two opposing awards: one for Best Title, because I love “Beware of Chicken” … and one for Worst Title, because the following books are all called Beware of Chicken 2, Beware of Chicken 3, and so on.
The LitRPG is Dungeon Crawler Carl. (LitRPG has roots in role-playing games. There is often, literally, a dungeon, and there is some system to keep track of character attributes – Strength, Intelligence, and so on. IMO, what makes LitRPG reasonable is how well this rating system makes sense in the context of the story.) I resisted this one for a while because I thought it would be junk. I was wrong. It’s fast, and funny, and wrenching, and it does that focus on being a good person again, except this time in an actively hostile environment. Also, it’s got the inimitable Princess Donut. A lot of DCC fans (Crawlers) are also huge fans of Jeff Hayes’ narration of the audiobook. The jury’s still out on that for me, but I’ve only heard part of Book 1, in a car. I will say he does an impressive number of different voices, though!
The alternate universe one is The Norwich Map Runners series, beginning with Flint in the Bones – unfortunately, only up to two volumes so far. I first came across this one in a recommendation in Jodi Taylor’s newsletter. Her recs haven’t always hit well with me, but this one definitely did. Due to some map-related incidents, magic has run wild in the city of Norwich, which has thus been (mostly) sealed off from the rest of the world, which has its own dystopian brand magic going on. The MC, a London cop born and bred in Norwich, is sent back to her hometown on the Both the MC and the writing are a bit reminiscent of Jodi’s own (in the case of the writing, some of that might just be due to regionalisms). I’m not much into dystopias. I’m only into cop novels when the cops are people, much more than uniforms. But this isn’t the “everything is ruined” sort of dystopia, it’s the “shit has happened but this is our place, let’s make it work” kind of dystopia, and these cops are the kind of people you’d want around for that.
On a more serious note, I’m seeing a lot of comments lately from other indie authors that advertising is really not working for them (us) anymore, advising the use of newsletters to keep readers updated. Currently, I’ve sent out exactly one newsletter. I will certainly send another as part of launching my third novel. It’s looking like I should probably create a more regular one. So, reminder, if you want to be on the list when that happens, you can sign up at the bottom of my main webpage.