Back in April, I mentioned that I was putting self-publishing on hold. That was mostly due to the demands of a double major. Well, since then, I’ve realized that financially I can only afford my Engineering major, not both. I’ll have a lot more time now because…

1. I’ll be in class less time.
2. I’ll have less homework.
3. I won’t have to work as many hours to pay for school.

So now I think I can go ahead with my self-publishing plans. I already sent out a request for cover art for Empire of Chains. It’ll be a few months before I get a cover, though. In the meantime, I’ll do another editing pass or two to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

I’ve also been working on Empire of Chains book three (The Gilded Empire). It’s proving to be the most challenging book I’ve written because I feel on the edge of having too much going on. Strangely enough, however, it’s probably going to be shorter than Empire of Chains and The Shadowed Land (book two). I guess that’s just how those things work out.

Empire of Chains is about 166,000 words. The Shadowed Land is about 146,000 words. So far, I’m at the 102,000 mark in The Gilded Empire. I expect another 20,000 or so words before I’m finished.

I currently have two other series in the works: Sunweaver and The God War. I plan to write multiple series at once because I think I’m a lot like Brandon Sanderson. I need to switch things up to keep things fresh. Thankfully, I’m also a fast writer like Sanderson.

I’ve been gone for a while. I hope I can stop doing that soon. It’s been a bit of a strange period for me. I’ve been adjusting to the demands of school, work, and writing. In the last month, I’ve made some decent progress on The Shadowed Land. It is now roughly 2/3 of the way done (well, the first draft at least). I might actually be closer to the end than that. My word count goal is just a rough guess of what I think the book will be in the end.

I’m happy with the way it’s turning out. As usual, I have a nice healthy dose of action. For me, it’s just not a story if I don’t throw in some battles and monsters and chase scenes.

The Shadowed Land is perhaps the most challenging book I’ve ever written. I’m balancing four stories in one, and that’s more than I’ve ever done before. My usual number is three (or fewer in the case of my middle grade fantasy).

Speaking of which, I’ve been working a little bit on that middle grade fantasy. It’s titled The Man in the Crystal Prison, and it’s kind of a “what if” game with Harry Potter. Instead of a low-tech magical world, I’ve decided to merge magic and technology into one. In my mind, that can be even more exciting. It combines my two favorite genres: fantasy and science fiction.

But I probably shouldn’t talk too much about that one just yet. For now, my focus is on the Empire of Chains series and the Sunweaver series. The God War series, starting with Watersong, will probably factor in at some point. I’ll have to see how much I can manage to do without driving myself insane (oh, the joys of stress and mental illness).

While I hate to admit it, I’ve been going back and forth again on self-publishing. Today, I decided I should go through with it. Let’s hope that decision sticks this time. I’m tired of wondering how I would do.

I really think I can make this work. My biggest doubts aren’t about the books. I think they’re ready.  No, it’s the marketing that terrifies me. I definitely have an online presence. I’m a member of some writing and genre-related forums (an active member, I should note). But I’m still getting the hang of Twitter. I have close to a hundred followers, which is pretty good when you consider that I haven’t been all that active.

I also know some other authors who’ve done the self-publishing thing with decent success. I can always ask them questions. It’s just terrifying (as I’ve probably said many times before).

So that’s what’s been going on with me.

As I mentioned a week ago, my dad’s been in the hospital. Yesterday, he finally got out of the ICU. He seems stable now, and he managed to eat his first meal while we were visiting. With slightly less worry about my dad, I was finally able to write today. I managed about 4,500 words in The Shadowed Land. Today, it was all action scenes (written a bit out of order).

I’m still enjoying the way this one is shaping up. It was nice to write again after nineteen days without writing. I also love taking what looks like a traditional fantasy story and putting my own spin on it. This second book really challenges the whole idea of the dark lord kind of character. The first book begins that challenge. At first, I present what looks like the same old quest story you’ve seen a thousand times, but it’s a more complex tale than that, and I hope you’ll give it a chance.

I still have no idea how many books this is going to be. I know for sure that it is not a trilogy.

One of these days, I need to get up some good blurbs for these books.

I do think I’m going to go through with my self-publishing plans. It won’t be an easy road. It will require me cutting back on some other things. But it should be worth it (though I might not see the results immediately).

Still, it terrifies me.

Sorry that I haven’t been blogging (or doing any writing for that matter). Last Thursday, my dad nearly died. He’s been in the ICU for over a week now. For the moment, he’s stable, but it hasn’t been a quick recovery. I hope he’ll be out of there soon. At some point, we’ll have to help him through his recovery, so I may not be updating this blog all that often.

It also means I might be putting my self-publishing plans on hold. I’ll see how things go with his recovery (and pray that he does indeed recover). He’s seventy-two years old, so he isn’t getting any younger. And it really was a close call. The condition he had, even with treatment, is fatal in seventy percent of cases.

With all my worries (and all my trips to the hospital), I haven’t exactly felt up to writing.