Here we are at the end of February. It has almost been a year since I first released the first installment of Tales from the Green onto Amazon and Smashwords, making now the perfect time to sit and reflect on where I'm going with this little story of mine. The Magic Flute eclipsed the 100 copies sold mark months ago without me noticing and The Wizard's Tome is close behind. Feedback has been by and large very positive, monthly sales have doubled and doubled again since I began, and while I recognize that I have a long way to go as a writer I believe more firmly than ever that I was right to put my work out there on the market as a self-published eBook author.
So, what are my plans for the future? First of all, I know I have been promising the third installment of the Tales from the Green series for a while now. Those waiting will be happy to know that the 2nd (or is it 3rd?) draft of The Tainted Sliver is at about 60% complete with an ending already in mind and partially written. This may not sound like much, but as many authors will tell you the beginning and ending of a book is most often the easy part. It's the stuff in between that will make you tear your hair out. I was stuck for a looong time on the meaty center of the Tainted Sliver but after months of editing and rewriting key scenes I am finally satisfied with where this tale is taking me. We're on the downhill slide now, so I expect a completed draft to be ready by around April. After that it's all editing for clarity, formatting, and such to make sure the finished product is readable. My plan was always to have a Spring 2011 release which I may be able to stick to, though I will hold off untill the summer if I think it necessary for the sake of quality.
So what comes after The Tainted Sliver? Good question. The logical course would be to immediately start on the next Tales from the Green novel. I have plenty of material that won't be making it into this book that may help accelerate the writing of a fourth and even a fifth to finish out the Ssvalith story arc. However, I have other ideas I wanted to pursue as well, especially my NaNoWriMo project that I worked on but failed to finish in November. I have two more fantasy settings I want to take a crack at as well as a supernatural western that I've been dreaming up for almost two years now. Time and writer's block will be the deciding factor in what gets written next, I suppose, but either way it is my sincere hope to keep putting out one story every year or two.
