2017 - The Plan

Do you know that saying that life is what happens when you're busy making plans? Well, I'm sure that it's true so when I say this is my plan for 2017, I'm using the word in it's loosest sense. I had a big year in 2016 (with some good on top of all of the world's stress). I finished writing Ashael Rising, got a publishing contract, successfully ran a crowdfunding campaign and did all of the required editing and proofreading to get the book ready for production.

In my personal life, I gave up my day job, got pregnant, bought a house and had my baby.

I'm not sure that 2017 can top all that. And truthfully, I almost hope that it doesn't - I'm exhausted! I'm looking forward to a quieter year. Of course, that was before I started making plans. Here's a peek at what's on my schedule so far:

Ashael Rising

First and foremost, is the release of Ashael Rising which should happen very soon now. I am hugely excited about this and I'll be sharing more of the details here as soon as I can. When I finished writing the first draft around this time last year, I anticipated that I might be ready to start looking for an agent round now - not that I would be about to release the book into the world! Expect launch parties, giveaways and all sorts of excitement.

Anthology

I will be contributing to, and editing, an anthology with stories by some of my fellow Unbound authors. Each story will in some way be linked to a fictional library. I have notes scribbled all over the place for this - I'm so excited about it that I even work on it in my head while feeding the baby in the middle of the night. This is the first project I'll be working on this year so expect to hear more about it over the next few months.

The Longest Night

This is the novella that I started for NaNoWriMo. I wasn't able to finish it by the end of November as I had planned and I missed the deadline for submission to Tor. I'm disappointed about that but c'est la vie. I found my way into a story that I'm keen to finish writing so I'm still classing it as a success. When I've completed the first round of work on the anthology, I'll be going back to this. I hope to complete the first draft by the end of April. Then I'll be able to see what I've got and start to think about the next steps for it. I'm not yet sure whether I'll shop around for a publisher or perhaps self-publish this one.

The Vessel of KalaDene: Book Two

The sequel to Ashael Rising has been busy percolating in my mind for months now. I can feel the general shape of the story, much as I could with book one. I know the emotional beats I want to hit and roughly where they come in the story, I know how the book ends and some of the key events. I'm not quite sure how it starts yet, though. Maybe it's one of those situations where I just have to start writing and see what happens. I expect to be working on this by early summer and most likely for the rest of the year, in between bouts of work on the anthology and possibly edits of The Longest Night.

The Blog

I intend to continue much the same schedule for the coming year. I have some really interesting interviews lined up for you, including a whole series of interviews with people who have been involved with the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off (or SPFBO), including award-winning author Mark Lawrence. I'm also hoping to put together a series of interviews with people involved with writing for or running small presses. As always, if you're interested in taking part in an interview or have a great idea for a guest post, reach out to me via the contact form.

Patreon

Over the next two weeks, I'll be updating and re-launching my Patreon page so watch this space for updates.

So, that's it for the moment. My year is looking pretty busy! Is there anything in there you'd like to hear more about? What do you have planned for this year? Leave a note in the comments!