I haven’t updated in a while as it has been full steam ahead on the writing front. I am all in on the Wild Rose series and I believe that things are going well. Let me show you where I’m at in my writing journey.

Thoughts on Balar

My Gothic Horror series, Balar, is still close to my heart. The third installment, the Evil of Balar, is my favourite of these, as I think I smoothed out the rough edges. Not only in the quality of the editing, but (importantly) the pacing and structure of the stories.

They are tricky books to sell. I realise that the short story structure might be the main issue here. Readers would rather spend their time with a smaller group of characters than jump from cast to cast. To address this, the final three books in the series will be in the form of complete narratives (rather than interconnected short stories).

This has always been the plan, but after these struggles, I know this better than ever.

The lesson here is: Don’t start a series as a short story collection. Perhaps this is better for established “worlds”. Only time will tell.

That being said, the eBooks fly when they are offered for free (which I do as often as Kindle Unlimited allows me too). So, perhaps they aren’t that off-putting.

If you’ve read any of the Balar books, please let me know in the comments what you think of them. I am also open to suggestions and/or questions about them.

Fantasy Feelings

I am 40k words in the first book in the trilogy and I am feeling good. All of my writing time has been devoted to it and it doesn’t feel like time wasted (like it did with the other project). The characters and the world feel alive.

My original target was 110k words, but at the moment it looks like I might overshoot that. So much so that it might reach double that in the end.

Writing fantasy is a significant shift in style from horror. In that genre, “lingering in the moment” kills the fright and suspense. In fantasy – especially if you’re creating a new world – you need to let the reader “live in the world”. Put another way, my job is to make you feel as if you can step into the page and understand the rules of the world.

My favourite fantasy stories do this for me. Do you feel the same? Please let me know in the comments which fantasy worlds you’d like to live in and why. We might have things in common in that score.

Planning & Planning

I am a plotter. I need to know where I’m going and what my ending is trying to do. Otherwise, I cannot start the train rolling down the track.

I planned my series backwards (it might have been mentioned elsewhere, I can’t find it). I outlined and reoutlined book 3 and went backwards from there. Ironically, this “constraint” set me free. As long as everything points towards that ending, I’ll be fine.

As ever, the stories will be packed with secrets and more for you to discover and theorize about. That’s what I want from books I read, and that’s what I hope to give you.

Preview, Maybe?

The first few chapters of the first book are fairly polished at this stage. I am tempted to share a preview on here. However, I am also considering approaching a traditional publisher with this series (I am going back and forth on this). So, until I decide, I’ll play things close to my chest.

However, if you are interested, please let me know. I really struggle with marketing and generating online interest (I’d rather hide behind a keyboard and let the letters do the talking), but I’m trying to get better at it. Sometimes it feels like I’m shouting into the void, so if you are reading this, please let me know.

In the meantime, I’ll keep updating you on my journey. I hope to write many a good story in my time and hopefully one or two will earn your trust and enjoyment.

TTRPG Fun

As some of my regular readers might know, I also run a fortnightly D&D Homebrew campaign. You can find the VODs here. It’s lots of fun and my players are amazing. While the worlds are separate from those of my novels, you will still get a good sense of my writing style from the descriptions in game.

Until Next Time…

Back to writing! I’ll update you on the progress of The Bramble Knight by the end of the month. Hopefully, I’ll have at least another 20k words under my belt by then (I’ll post a count).