What Have I Been Up To?

It’s been a long time since I published Revelations. Like, depressingly long if you ask me. And for many of you, that might have been the last time you read one of my books.

So what the heck have I been up to this whole time?

We’ll keep it (mostly) author related, because that’s the important stuff.

Long story short, I actually burnt myself out from writing in 2023. I partnered with an urban fantasy author, M.D. Massey, to write in his Druidverse universe on a new project called the CERBERUS Paranormal Detective Series, which is a fun, punchy, monster-of-the-week style series of novels. A lot of good stuff came from this partnership.

First, we published three books in the span of five months.

As someone who took about five years to write and publish my first book and a year and a half to do the same to its sequel, that’s one heck of a change. Massey is an indie author well-established in his career, so rapid publishing was something he already knew. I, on the other hand, had only ever dreamed of writing so quickly.

So when you tack on working full-time (and then some) as a freelancer, navigating the tail end of a pandemic, and all the other stuff that life threw my way by just living, it was a lot.

More good stuff, though: The books are bestsellers.

The first two we wrote together hit #1 new release status, which is a title that effectively says, “Out of all the books released in this subgenre in the last three months, yours is selling the most.” It’s bestseller status, but it’s not the bestseller status.

The third book, however, hit that #1 bestseller spot.

I don’t think I appreciate that designation enough, because talking about my own accomplishments is still something I practice all the time. It feels weird, but I keep reminding myself it should be celebrated.

So, through that partnership, I became a bestselling author!

And then I didn’t write another word of fiction for over a year.

I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I wanted to, don’t get me wrong, but my brain and my hands froze up when I tried to type anything.

To be clear, I don’t use the term burnout lightly. Burnout doesn’t mean you don’t want to do something. There are weeds in my backyard as I write this that need to be pulled, but I don’t want to. That doesn’t mean I’m burned out from pulling weeds.

Burnout also doesn’t mean you don’t want to do something you normally like doing. There are plenty of days when I don’t feel like writing or playing video games or cooking. It doesn’t mean I’m burned out on any of them.

To experience burnout, I’ve since learned, the idea of doing that thing causes a negative emotional reaction. It’s not just that you don’t want to do it, but doing it is a negative act.

The killer is that I was burnt out on writing but wanted to write so badly.

It was a weird time. Luckily, I ended up finding some writing coaches to work with to get me back in the groove and hold myself accountable. If it wasn’t for working with these coaches, I don’t know if I’d be getting ready to release the third book in Shadow’s Advent (more on that book here).

Throughout that time, I basically got my dream job, too. I get to spend my 9-5 (and maybe some more) creating educational resources for other authors. I get to write and yap about writing all day long. It rocks—and I’m currently writing this in front of some of those very authors during one of our writing sprints.

Combine all those things, and I’ve been writing a heck of a lot of stuff over the last year and a half. A lot of first drafts, to be clear.

That includes:

• Firstborn (Book Three of Shadow’s Advent)
• Heavenfall (a prequel novella featuring Naimir from Revelations)
• A horror novel
• One and a half urban fantasy novels of my own

I’ve been loving it. Writing has brought me a lot of joy and fulfillment as I’ve been exploring all these characters and worlds.

The issue with enjoying these first drafts so much is that first drafts don’t get published! So in January of this year, I made a promise to my wife and all the folks I work with (and for) that I wouldn’t write anything new until I finished the revisions for Firstborn.

And I’m happy to report I accomplished that!

So what’s next?

Again, you can check out the blog all about Firstborn to learn more about that, including a rough timeline and a bit of a teaser for the story itself.

If you’re reading this when it goes live, Firstborn is likely with beta readers. Those are folks who read a nearly publish-ready draft to give me reader feedback. Once they’re done, I do a final round of revisions, send it off to a copy editor, and then get it ready for publication.

How freakin’ exciting is that?

I don’t have a launch date yet, but stay tuned for when you’ll be able to get your hands on a copy.

That all leads into what’s coming up.

Well, Firstborn. Have I mentioned that?

You’ll also want to make sure you grab your free copy of Heavenfall, that prequel novella. It’s actually longer than a novella is supposed to be, so I guess it’s just a free book that explores Naimir’s descent to Earth during the early years of the Apocalypse.

I plan to write more stories with Naimir and other characters from Heavenfall, but that’s not where the focus is. Instead, it’s all set on progressing the Shadow’s Advent series. I have so many awesome ideas for the remaining books in the series and I’m itching to get them down on (digital) paper.

Does that mean I won’t be publishing anything else between Firstborn and its sequel? That’s hard to say. Firstborn is long, like 80% longer than Archangel, and it takes a long time to write, revise, and publish a book that long, so I may need some breaks while writing the rest of the series.

But rest assured those sequels won’t take as long as Firstborn to get out. I’m committed and, most importantly, excited to get these next books to you.

If you want to be the first to hear about those new releases, make sure you sign up for my mailing list (which also gets you that free book to tide you over).

Until then, talk to you later, my friends!