Category: New

I just made progress on Aeonlith Saga Book 2! So far I’m 90% complete on the Writing phase. 11 Days remain until the deadline.

I usually make these updates on Fridays but as I’m off on a road trip for the next eleven days, I decided to make an early update. I know this says I’m 90% complete the book but I originally estimated this book would be 90,000 words– and I’ve blown past that already. That means, I’ve reached my goal but the goal has become a moving target.

My best estimate based on average chapter length is that this will be something like 102,000 words… which is a bit problematic since I tend to underwrite my first draft. That means book 2 of the Aeonlith Chronicles will be much longer than 100,000 words– how much longer, I haven’t the foggiest idea.

Currently, I’m six chapters away from completing this book so it’s getting down to the wire! Since I’m deep into the climax, these chapters typically run the shortest so there is actually still a chance I won’t hit 100k with this first draft.

I just made progress on Aeonlith Saga Book 2! So far I’m 94% complete on the Writing phase. 6 Days remain until the deadline.

Still not done book 2, but we’re in the endgame now! I doubt I’ll be able to make my goal of finishing before the end of July, unfortunately, but it’s almost there. Only 11 more chapters to go and my climax chapters tend to be shorter so hopefully I’ll blast through them quickly!

Other things of note: my editor has returned the edited pages of book 1 so I just need to do a pass of that before sending them off to my beta readers. I’ve also got back edited pages of the short stories as well so a pass of those will need to get done soon too.

Things aren’t going as quickly as I like but they are progressing. Bit of a mixed good news/bad news bag this week.

I just made progress on Aeonlith Chronicles Book 2! So far I’m 86% complete on the Writing phase. 0 Days remain until the deadline.

I’ve actually completed an entire pass on the first draft! Last weekend I rented an Airbnb and dictated the entire second Aeonlith novel to its conclusion… so why the 86% completion? It has to do with editing the text that the transcription software produces. Frankly, it isn’t great and I tend to gloss over loads of things when dictating that need to be written in. Still, the math holds out that doing it this way is twice as fast as sitting down to write.

Editing wise, I’ve completed over 8,300 words this week since Monday which includes some of my longest chapters yet. That means, conservatively, the first draft should be completed before the end of the month. I am planning on doing quite a bit of editing on Saturday so hopefully that will allow me to finish it before July 31st.

In other news, A Veil for the Vanguard (Book 1) is nearing the end of the editing process. Fourteen chapters remain for a final pass before being sent off to my beta readers. Book 3 is behind on being plotted out but since my goals are to have book 1 and 2 finished, that one isn’t a priority.

I just made progress on Aeonlith Saga Book 2! So far I’m 77% complete on the Writing phase. 7 Days remain until the deadline.

I’m still pretty far from completing the first draft of the book but tonight begins my stay at an Airbnb where I’m going to hunker down and write a ton of words! Probably won’t have the draft finished but I’ll be close to being done.

So what’s with the slow down this week? Well, there is a bit of burn out happening in regards to writing but I still wanted to work on the series as a whole. With that in mind, I decided to begin work on a Wiki which includes some well crafted drawings— and so I taught myself digital illustration this week. On the right is a sneak peak at what the protagonist of the Aeonlith Chronicles looks like. Took me a few hours to paint the portrait but it was totally worth it.

Part of the reason for the Wiki is that there are a lot of things to keep track of for the series. I found myself having to go back looking for certain descriptions and small facts I was bringing up again. I also found that I had changed the eye color of a few characters so the visual image will definitely help keep everything consistent. 

I just made progress on Aeonlith Saga Book 2! So far I’m 75% complete on the Writing phase. 14 Days remain until the deadline.

The first draft is slowly coming together but more slowly than I’d like. Word count is down this week but words have been added every day. I’ll take my wins where I can get them!

Tomorrow (Saturday) I’ll become a bit of a recluse and stay at home and write for hours on end. Or binge watch Stranger Things… Just kidding!

Speaking of writing for hours on a weekend: a month ago I booked a nearby Airbnb for a few days to do a solo writing retreat for myself. I plan on doing nothing but writing so tomorrow will be a bit of a dry run to test a few things out. That writing retreat kicks in next weekend and I’m really REALLY hoping to finish first draft of Book 2 of the Aeonlith Chronicles then. Even if I don’t make it, I should have a week remaining to wrap it up on schedule.

I’m also hoping to complete a first draft of a short story then as well and outline book 3. I already started outlining but there’s a lot more work that needs to be done on it.

Theoretically, I should be 70% done on book 2 of the Aeonlith Chronicles, but because I’ve added a few chapters, it seems more likely that I’m 65% done the first draft. Still planning on hitting my deadline but there will probably be more book than I originally intended. I estimated that the draft would be 90,000 words but I suspect it’ll actually be something more like 96,000. The final will probably add another 5,000 to 10,000 words since I typically underwrite my first drafts.

I just made progress on Aeonlith Saga Book 2! So far I’m 70% complete on the Writing phase. 21 Days remain until the deadline.

The Other Aeonlith Books

Book 1 is going through its final major edits and should be ready for my beta readers soon. I’m excited to have that completed so I can throw it in a drawer for a bit and not worry about it for a bit. The downside is that it won’t be released until book 2 is close to being complete. I want to release both within 90 days of each other.

I’ve fallen behind on plotting book 3 but I’m not worrying too much about it until I have book 2 complete. I was very aggressive with my due dates and knew that I was unlikely to hit them but I’m also doing better than what I assumed I would be doing… so it all balances out! Or that’s what I keep telling myself. I do plan on having this book done for sometime in 2020 so I really need to haul ass.

Something a Bit More

I haven’t really touched it much but a sci-fi book series is percolating in the ol’ noggin. Unlike the Aeonlith Chronicles which has a bit more give regarding the plot for each book, I want to write the outline for the entire series first before even touching book 1. That means a LOT more outlining up front before I even begin to write a draft.

Don’t want to say too much about it because it is the side project right now, but so far it looks to be a tetralogy of trilogies but will tell a complete story. Think of how the Expanse series is more akin to a trilogy of trilogies. I’ll have more on this series when I start to really dig into it.

I just made progress on Aeonlith Saga Book 2! So far I’m 64% complete on the Writing phase. 28 Days remain until the deadline. I’m a little behind but within reach of finishing off the first draft! Can’t believe I’m 2/3rds the way through…

Lots of progress on the second Aeonlith book! I’m still two to three chapters behind but I have the weekend to catch up. The hope is that I’ll have the first draft of Aeonlith Book 2 done by the end of July. If I fall too far behind, I’ve already set up a 3 day writing retreat for myself where I’ll hole myself up in an Airbnb and spend all my time writing. What I’m really hoping for is that I’ll be done book 2 before the Airbnb and can get a big head start on book 3.

While there’s no update for A Veil for the Vanguard below, I assure you, it’s coming along! Just need to implement the changes from my editor and it is pretty much ready to go out to my beta readers.

I didn’t make any progress on any of the short stories since I’m more concerned with finishing up the novels. I need to get one more short set in the Aeonlith universe written soon, it just isn’t a priority at the moment. Here’s this week’s stats:I just completed the Outlining phase of Aeonlith Saga Book 2! Now onto Writing!

I just made progress on Aeonlith Saga Book 2! So far I’m 54% complete on the Writing phase. 5 Weeks remain until the deadline.

Got loads done this week on both A Veil for the Vanguard AND book 2 in the Aeonlith Saga. First up, I finished my edits on Veil before a quick edit by my editor and then it’s off to my beta readers. This has been a loooong time coming!

Book 2 has taken some structural changes as I write. This is normal for me since I have a habit of consolidating chapters and adding more as I write. I also never finished a more detailed outline for Book 2, adding more structural changes, so I’m almost done doing that. Should have it finished by this weekend.

A few more chapters are also in the can for Book 2 after hitting a rough spot. I’m about three chapters behind where I would like to be but, I’ll be honest, I knew I was being a bit unrealistic with my goal.

Finally, finished my major edits for my short story The Wizard and the Warrior and that’ll have to go to my editor before the beta reader process. Been meaning to finish this one as it will be a freebie for signing up to the mailing list.

All in all, pretty good week!

I just completed the Editing phase of A Veil for the Vanguard! Now onto Proofing!

I just made progress on Aeonlith Saga Book 2! So far I’m 91% complete on the Outlining phase. 1 Days remain until the deadline.

I just made progress on Aeonlith Saga Book 2! So far I’m 45% complete on the Writing phase. 6 Weeks remain until the deadline.

I just made progress on Short Story: The Wizard and the Warrior! So far I’m 60% complete on the Editing phase.

I’ve unfortunately fell behind on writing the second book and finishing the first. Fortunately, A Veil for the Vanguard is almost complete! As you can tell from the chart below, book one in the Aeonlith Saga is about a month late but I’m happy to announce that editing should be done by the end of next week.

Book two is coming along slowly and I think I’ll actually be able to hit my deadline with an aggressive writing schedule. This not only takes into account book 2 but also the start of book 3 in order to get that complete in a timely manner.

I’ll also try to make these updates a bit more frequently since it’s been a while since the last update and that’s unfair for anyone keeping track.

I just made progress on Aeonlith Saga Book 2! So far I’m 40% complete on the Writing phase.