Winter 2021 - Update on Projects

It’s been a few months since Sanctuary’s release, so it’s time for a general update on things.

I’m currently re-reading all of the books in The Queendoms Series, starting with Rebellion, to prepare for the final book. I’d actually started writing To the Farthest Shore back in December and got a few thousand words down, before realizing I needed to go back and go through the history, so to speak, of the entire series first.

If you’re a writer, you know what it’s like. You forget a lot of the details in the books you write. If you’re not a writer this probably sounds odd, but it’s true. I knew there were side characters I liked from the first trilogy that I wanted to bring back in the final book of the series, so it would have that old home week feeling, that come full circle feeling.

That was one reason to re-read everything. Another reason was to get into the feel and rhythm of the story universe again, to experience the characters from the beginning as the readers do, seeing their growth from day one onward.

I’d hoped to get the final book out in the first half of this year, but it’s looking more like summer now. My work schedule remains the same, so unless I get a break from it somehow, I’m afraid it’s the best I can do.

I’ll definitely get it done by summer, though. There’s a reason why I need to.

... There’s another book coming after this one! :-O!

Let me be clear – To the Farthest Shore is the final book of the main canon storyline, and that’s not changing. This new book is something a little different.

From time to time in the books I’ve dropped hints about how the four queendoms were founded in those years after the dark times. I’ve also mentioned the Teachings of Gaia, the spiritual guidebook that the queendoms citizens more or less follow.

This last book will be a collection of short stories, interspersed with passages from the Teachings of Gaia. There will be one story from the founding of each queendom, and one story for each queendom that takes place after the events in To the Farthest Shore. I haven’t decided yet how far out to go, but it’ll probably be one or two years after the conclusion of the main storyline.

The name of this book will be Tales of the Queendoms. I’d like to have it done and released by the end of this year, so that’s why I’m planning to have To the Farthest Shore done by summertime.

Tales of the Queendoms will be the book of happy endings that I’d originally envisioned Second Bond was going to be – before I realized the story wasn’t done yet and started on The Queendoms Trilogy. So I hope you will look forward to reading it.

The lovely picture of the vineyard above is the image I’ll be using as the foundation for To the Farthest Shore’s cover art.

Thanks for sticking with this series. I’ll update on my progress again in the near future.