This year did not go as planned, but I can take comfort in that it wasn’t entirely my fault. Even so, it had some successes and progress. I wrote over 232,000 words, but almost all of that happened before October (when I injured my hand). Here’s a breakdown of what happened in 2022:
Heart of Fire series
My first epic fantasy series continues to be my best sellers. In March, the first two books were offered free on Kindle. Each one was downloaded over 1,000 times with very little advertising. While it didn’t result in huge sales of the other two books, I do continue to see more page reads on those two as people get around to reading the free books they downloaded.
2023: I do still plan to put together a box deal offer on this series at some point.
Dragontek Lore series
This was the big one for the year. I’m still amazed that I published three books in the series (Auric, Onyx, and Amaranth) in the course of one year. My plan had been to publish the next one (Atramentous) at the end of the year, but like so many things in the final quarter, that got derailed.
2023: In some ways, though, it’s a good thing. I think Atramentous needs some more re-writes as the penultimate book in the series. Right now, I’m tentatively hoping to release it late in the first quarter of the year, followed by the FINAL book in the series, Chroma, sometime later in the summer or fall.
New fantasy series
This accounted for most of my writing time in 2022. I wrote the first draft of this new book (tentative title Bloodless in the sidebar – that will be changing) from May through September, and I loved every minute of it. Since then (and the injury), I have been slowly editing and revising it into the shape it needs to be. In my optimistic view from late 2021, I thought this one might come out for Christmas this year. If it had, however, it would not have been as good as it will be. The new revisions are making it better, deepening both the world and the story.
2023: I’m not sure which will be published first: this one or the newest Dragontek. I want to make sure the launch of this book is something special. But it will be sooner rather than later. Ideally, I want it out before Comicpalooza in May. I’ll probably release some excerpts to this list sometime early in the new year. I’m also looking forward to writing the sequel.
Live Events
Comicpalooza 2022 was fantastic, the biggest live event I’ve done by far. I had planned to do more here toward the end of the year, but injury and weather prevented it.
2023: I’m already registered for Comicpalooza 2023! Beyond that, I hope to do at least a couple more events in the year.
Summary
By the end of 2023, the Dragontek Lore series will be complete. At least one book in the new series will be in your hands. And I’ll be talking about the next big thing, whatever that is. I do have some ideas, so we’ll see where they lead…
