I’m a bit stuck on what to write about this week, so I figure a quick update on my active projects is a decent idea.

As always, I have multiple projects going. My brain just doesn’t work right with a single project at a time. At the moment, I have two ‘active’ projects and a third ‘occasional’ project. Unless something takes me by surprise, I expect to be working on these three for the rest of the year.

My Current Projects

Hunted and Called

Formerly ‘A Smear of Blood,’ Hunted and Called is a fully drafted fantasy novel about the chosen avatar of a dark goddess and his quest to save the goddes. Sort of. I don’t have a good elevator pitch yet.

Hunted and Called is fully drafted at just under 50,000 words. I’m currently halfway through my first (of three) round of edits. Tentatively hope to publish in February or March.

Wolf Girl

This one doesn’t have a proper title yet. It started as a why choose romance, but the romance angle seems to be dropping off while leaving the basic plot the same in a kind of chosen family type thing. Lone werewolf is rescued by a vampire coven and ends up taking over the coven.

Julia, on the left, is the wolf. Robert, on the right, is one of the vampires.

I recently decided that since I’m not going to be able to afford to commission artists for the foreseeable future, I’d dust off my limited artistic skill and try making my own character pics. I’m tentatively pleased with how they came out, given that limited skill.

Wolf Girl is in the early drafting/expansion stage. So far I’ve written 3,500 words, of which ~1,500 are in the current draft.

I’m using Wolf Girl as my project for a couple of November writing challenges, but I only expect to write ~20,000 words this month. My goal for the story as a whole is another short novel in the 40,000-50,000 word range and to finish drafting in late December or early January.

Planting Life Sequel Worldbuilding

Yes, there is going to be a sequel to Planting Life in a Dying City. Or at least, there is going to be another story set in the same world. However, it’s going to be set in a different culture and probably several hundred years later. I’m not spending a lot of time on it right now, but I am working on developing that world and culture a bit at a time.

Long Term?

I absolutely cannot go back to my plan of a year ago of writing and publishing a story a month. In the short term it was doable, in the long term a recipe for burnout. I had my reasons for trying it, but not again. I’m tentatively thinking of trying for releasing 3-4 stories a year. I think that’s likely to be more sustainable in the long run.

I’ve got a couple of projects in the wings. The most developed has a working title ‘Coven and Chorus,’ about a young woman who discovers she is ‘fated mates’ with two different groups of witches. I’ve got the next Clan Lună story to write (aiming for a four book series there). Plus there’s a good nine or ten Whips & Fangs stories left to be released as singles.

If there’s a particular story you’d like to see my pick up after I finish Hunted and Called this winter, drop a note in the comments and let me know!