Inspirations & Triumphs!

It’s been some time since my last update. Sometimes even thinking about doing a post gets lost among my job, family, side projects, and other social media posts. But so much has happened.

First, HoverDome: Red Canyon Run made it’s Kickstarter goals, was manufactured, shipped, and delivered! There’s even two sites for it: 1) the marketing site, 2) the ecommerce site others can still purchase the game with (while supplies last). Matt, Derek, and I (“Frozen Soul Games”) are so proud of what we accomplished. I’m also thrilled that a little part of my D’mok literary universe has been brought into our real world too, since HoverDome was the hoverbike racing arena in books 3 and 4.

My first book in the Toriko Tales series is completely done and edited! I have a placeholder site for this as well. It won’t further develop until it’s published (formally or self-published). Matt’s going to help me with the cover design (assuming it goes forward as self-published). I do need to get Weun Academy 1 out first since Toriko Tales mentions places and characters from that series.

Speaking of Weun Academy: The Shadow Maker, after finishing Toriko Tales I discovered my writing style had elevated once again. In fact, going back and re-reading Weun Academy opened my eyes to the many ways it could be improved. Thankfully, WA had yet to be released. So, I went back end edited it. I added over 13,000 words, edited the vast majority of every page, improved dialog, enhanced character depth, and more. I’m very happy with the way the story evolved. Currently my friend Dan is reviewing it. I hope to have one other as well, before I send it back to Arlene for editing. Then, it too will be ready for release. Matt is also helping me with this cover. It’s been so long since he and I talked about it–before we formally worked on the Kickstarter for HoverDome. Matt loves his projects, and I can happily provide them! Lucky for me!

As a result of editing Weun Academy, I’ve reconnected with those characters and that place. It’s actually what I was hoping to accomplish. Going off and writing the locations, situations, and new characters of Toriko Tales really pulled me away from WA. The editing undid that. In my last blog post I mentioned I had started WA2. Outside of occasional backstories, not much had happened with it since. I felt it calling to me again. More characters appeared in little snippets in my mind talking or doing things. I went back and reread what I wrote as the intro so long ago. While it wasn’t bad, something wasn’t clicking. I needed to go back and understand what exactly happened between books 1 and 2 to get the start and ultimate tone of book 2 right.

So, I sat down and worked on some short stories. I know exactly what happens the day after WA1 ends. I won’t give details since only a handful (by Beta readers) know why that’s important. But that exposed the next thing I needed to understand, and the next thing after that. I found a chain of things that had to be addressed before attempting to write WA2.

I’m still in throws of those mid-steps. I can clearly see them, and have even done outlines on the “movie trailer” snippets of the short stories. I really love what’s coming together. Best of all, it’s so natural. The words just flow, mostly because I’m documenting the movie playing in my head. I’m thankful to have that so clearly back again. There was a time during Toriko Tales where it had evaporated on me.

I don’t know how long it will take me to write WA2. On average a full novel (especially ones the size of Weun Academy) can take two years. That said, I wrote D’mok Revival book 4 in months, and it was nearly the size of WA1. So, we shall see. It’s really up to life.

As always I can see the clear tied between happenings in my life, Matt’s life, Derek’s life, and the world that integrate directly into my stories. I felt like COVID’s isolation would manifest in a major way in WA2, perhaps lots of virtual learning like my son had to do. But that’s not what I see anymore. Certainly there is isolation. But for a much smaller subset of students, and all due to the shadow from WA1. Again, I shouldn’t say too much more due to spoilers.

Regardless, I can’t wait to see how this goes and how everything turns out. It might be possible to go from WA2 directly to D’mok Revival 5. Originally I intended on writing Wayfinder 1 after WA2, then DR5… But I see a path to holding off Wayfinder 1.

We shall see! I promise to blog more!