2019 fiction production schedule (The science fiction world of Icarus)
This year is going to be a very busy year for me. I have a boatload of projects that I want to work on. Far more than I can reasonably plan on finishing--but what else is new?
The project that is closest to completion is Astronauts and Snakeheads (original working title: Mercury Forty-Two). And this is a big surprise; given that at this time last year, it was even thought of yet.
Two years ago, I decided to do a relaunch of my career. Over the last decade, the book market has changed--in the sense that Amazon is now the biggest pimp of books in the world. Authors, both indie and traditional, now have a better idea of how to turn the current sales environment to their own advantage. Many of the front runners in the current market have written books about the best practices that they are using.
Originally, I expected to be much further in my reinvention of myself at this point. But my mother-in-law's death delayed things by a year or more. This resulted me in putting projects on hold, and well as leaving me time to read a lot of the indie writer advice books.It also removed the urgency and speed that my reinvention was supposed to launched at. Basically, I ended up with time to actually think about what I wanted to work on, rather than just writing a bunch of quick projects solely to attempt to make money.
In hindsight, the belief that I needed to make money now instead of taking the proper amount of time to produce quality work was hurting my chances of success. Rack it up to my childhood and the child abuse that my parents subjected me to. Basically, by forcing me to sacrifice for the well-being of my siblings, my parents planted a PTSD soaked success handicap in my mental landscape.
"Oh, your parents could not have messed you up that much. Surely, it was your problem, not theirs. Quit blaming others for your failures. Besides getting beat within an inch of your life builds character"
Okay--how about this for a success landmine? I felt obligated to hand over every dime I made. And I mean every dime. As in I wasn't even allowed to spend money to get decent covers for my books.
"Before I can afford to put a dime into my writing, I have to make enough to pay all the household bills. So that means that I need to make fifty, a hundred thousand before I can even think about paying for a ten dollar book cover."
How this bad belief got installed was that my father lost everything in a business failure. Suddenly I was required by my parents to sacrifice all my interests and desires for the well-being of my siblings. At age thirteen, I found myself bearing adult responsibilities--having to give up every dime I made, and having to skip school to babysit my siblings thanks to my mom being gone for hours at a time. I went without a winter coat, proper shoes, and no glasses, so that my parents could put food on the table.
And the cherry on top was that I was not allowed to talk about being poor, nor was I allowed to tell the school why I never did any homework and was skipping school so often. My mother told me to my face that the reason I was failing school was that I was stupid, and that it had nothing to do with her being gone half of the time.
That is part of the bag of dirt hat I am carrying around. Nice, right?
Between the meds (this nonsense being the mere tip of my mental health issues) and the extra thinking time, I now realize how crazy it is to think like that.
And people wonder why so many of my characters are slightly insane. How could there be less crazy loons in my fiction? It is not like I know how to create characters who are sane.
Besides sane characters are boring.
Yes, my fiction is knee-deep in insane (some far beyond borderline).
Anyways, back to the production schedule. . .
So it looks like Astronauts and Snakeheads is going to be the project finished up first. It is part of the Icarus universe. The next most likely novel to get done this year is Axe Murderer of Titan. Gee, there is no possibility of that novel having at least one crazy person in it, is there?
The entire Icarus universe actually started off as me wanting to do a Star Cops inspired police in space story. At first, I thought that it was going to be a hard science universe. Then in a moment of laziness while thinking about writing an international outer space community, I asked out loud, "Can't I just give the Ancient Egyptians rockets and be done with it?" Yes, lazy writer who might be able to fake British characters decided that research in other cultures was too time consuming. Suddenly I had New Egyptians everywhere in the Icarus universe and the Neos had access to Super Science! (Actually it may be Super Magic! instead of science--only time will tell how it works out.)
The other thing that sparked off the Icarus universe was that I asked the question, "What happens to astronauts in space if Earth suffers a global EMP attack? What would the astros do to survive? And will gunfire be exchanged?" Needless to say, a lot of possible stories sprung into being at that point.
Outside of work on the Icarus universe, I do plan on doing fiction in other universes (my favorite being a world where fairies live among us, with one becoming a detective solving human-fey crimes--The Unlikely), but realistically the launch of that universe needs to be delayed, so that I can build up a series of novels set in the science fiction Icarus universe first.
One thing that all my universes have in common is that I intend the individual novels to be able to stand alone. While there is going to be "season arcs" and interaction among the widely scattered characters (slow space travel environment), I am hoping readers love the setting as much as they love the characters.
There are some overlaps with all of the universes that I am writing in. For instance, Big Belly Buddha Burgers appears in all my universes. This may be turning a habit of laziness into a literary game of "Spot the pen-name." The First Pharaoh of the New Egyptian Empire has also jumped the dimensional barrier and shows up in more than one universe.
Each one of these universes has its own pen-name for branding and audience filtering purposes. While I hope that my hardcore fans will read everything I write, I must admit that there are some people who will only read stories that take place on the moon. To cut down on the confusion, and to give Amazon a better chance to find my perfect readers, multiple pen-names is definitely a requirement.
(For those who like my Great Gherkin/Sister Soice/Esoteric Comedy Show universe, I plan on working in it again, but business considerations say that I really need to focus on one universe, building up my back list before I spread myself too thin.)
On the non-fiction end, I still plan on expanding my current occult offerings into full length books. I just been struggled to reconcile what my literary self wants to sound like with my actual writing voice.
I am also planning on writing a set of "ever green value added" articles on writing, blogging and business. Which is why this new blog exists.
Still my focus for the foreseeable future is finishing off the first few novels in the Icarus universe. I am hoping to have the first release ready before the first Occult Garden Party of the 2019 season. I can do it. . . provided that I keep taking my bipolar meds.
So it is going to be a busy year. Onwards and upwards.
To learn more about the science fiction world of Icarus, click out this post on the blog dedicated to that universe.
 |
| Because giving Ancient Egyptians rockets is a neat idea. |
Two years ago, I decided to do a relaunch of my career. Over the last decade, the book market has changed--in the sense that Amazon is now the biggest pimp of books in the world. Authors, both indie and traditional, now have a better idea of how to turn the current sales environment to their own advantage. Many of the front runners in the current market have written books about the best practices that they are using.
Originally, I expected to be much further in my reinvention of myself at this point. But my mother-in-law's death delayed things by a year or more. This resulted me in putting projects on hold, and well as leaving me time to read a lot of the indie writer advice books.It also removed the urgency and speed that my reinvention was supposed to launched at. Basically, I ended up with time to actually think about what I wanted to work on, rather than just writing a bunch of quick projects solely to attempt to make money.
In hindsight, the belief that I needed to make money now instead of taking the proper amount of time to produce quality work was hurting my chances of success. Rack it up to my childhood and the child abuse that my parents subjected me to. Basically, by forcing me to sacrifice for the well-being of my siblings, my parents planted a PTSD soaked success handicap in my mental landscape.
"Oh, your parents could not have messed you up that much. Surely, it was your problem, not theirs. Quit blaming others for your failures. Besides getting beat within an inch of your life builds character"
Okay--how about this for a success landmine? I felt obligated to hand over every dime I made. And I mean every dime. As in I wasn't even allowed to spend money to get decent covers for my books.
"Before I can afford to put a dime into my writing, I have to make enough to pay all the household bills. So that means that I need to make fifty, a hundred thousand before I can even think about paying for a ten dollar book cover."
How this bad belief got installed was that my father lost everything in a business failure. Suddenly I was required by my parents to sacrifice all my interests and desires for the well-being of my siblings. At age thirteen, I found myself bearing adult responsibilities--having to give up every dime I made, and having to skip school to babysit my siblings thanks to my mom being gone for hours at a time. I went without a winter coat, proper shoes, and no glasses, so that my parents could put food on the table.
And the cherry on top was that I was not allowed to talk about being poor, nor was I allowed to tell the school why I never did any homework and was skipping school so often. My mother told me to my face that the reason I was failing school was that I was stupid, and that it had nothing to do with her being gone half of the time.
That is part of the bag of dirt hat I am carrying around. Nice, right?
Between the meds (this nonsense being the mere tip of my mental health issues) and the extra thinking time, I now realize how crazy it is to think like that.
And people wonder why so many of my characters are slightly insane. How could there be less crazy loons in my fiction? It is not like I know how to create characters who are sane.
Besides sane characters are boring.
 |
| Have you taken your meds today? The First Pharaoh says that you must--even if you don't want to. |
Anyways, back to the production schedule. . .
So it looks like Astronauts and Snakeheads is going to be the project finished up first. It is part of the Icarus universe. The next most likely novel to get done this year is Axe Murderer of Titan. Gee, there is no possibility of that novel having at least one crazy person in it, is there?
The entire Icarus universe actually started off as me wanting to do a Star Cops inspired police in space story. At first, I thought that it was going to be a hard science universe. Then in a moment of laziness while thinking about writing an international outer space community, I asked out loud, "Can't I just give the Ancient Egyptians rockets and be done with it?" Yes, lazy writer who might be able to fake British characters decided that research in other cultures was too time consuming. Suddenly I had New Egyptians everywhere in the Icarus universe and the Neos had access to Super Science! (Actually it may be Super Magic! instead of science--only time will tell how it works out.)
The other thing that sparked off the Icarus universe was that I asked the question, "What happens to astronauts in space if Earth suffers a global EMP attack? What would the astros do to survive? And will gunfire be exchanged?" Needless to say, a lot of possible stories sprung into being at that point.
Outside of work on the Icarus universe, I do plan on doing fiction in other universes (my favorite being a world where fairies live among us, with one becoming a detective solving human-fey crimes--The Unlikely), but realistically the launch of that universe needs to be delayed, so that I can build up a series of novels set in the science fiction Icarus universe first.
One thing that all my universes have in common is that I intend the individual novels to be able to stand alone. While there is going to be "season arcs" and interaction among the widely scattered characters (slow space travel environment), I am hoping readers love the setting as much as they love the characters.
There are some overlaps with all of the universes that I am writing in. For instance, Big Belly Buddha Burgers appears in all my universes. This may be turning a habit of laziness into a literary game of "Spot the pen-name." The First Pharaoh of the New Egyptian Empire has also jumped the dimensional barrier and shows up in more than one universe.
Each one of these universes has its own pen-name for branding and audience filtering purposes. While I hope that my hardcore fans will read everything I write, I must admit that there are some people who will only read stories that take place on the moon. To cut down on the confusion, and to give Amazon a better chance to find my perfect readers, multiple pen-names is definitely a requirement.
(For those who like my Great Gherkin/Sister Soice/Esoteric Comedy Show universe, I plan on working in it again, but business considerations say that I really need to focus on one universe, building up my back list before I spread myself too thin.)
On the non-fiction end, I still plan on expanding my current occult offerings into full length books. I just been struggled to reconcile what my literary self wants to sound like with my actual writing voice.
I am also planning on writing a set of "ever green value added" articles on writing, blogging and business. Which is why this new blog exists.
Still my focus for the foreseeable future is finishing off the first few novels in the Icarus universe. I am hoping to have the first release ready before the first Occult Garden Party of the 2019 season. I can do it. . . provided that I keep taking my bipolar meds.
So it is going to be a busy year. Onwards and upwards.
To learn more about the science fiction world of Icarus, click out this post on the blog dedicated to that universe.
It's all going to be amazing!
ReplyDeleteSounds most interesting Morgan- very best of luck!
ReplyDelete