Good morning from soggy North Idaho!
We have been stuck in a very Oregon-like pattern for the last several days with cold, rainy, dreary weather and occasional slushy, wet snow. After watching me layer up and stare longingly at the woodstove for a day or so, The Man took pity on me and fired it back up. The mini-split is totally sufficient for heat until the temps dip low at night. This house is quite drafty, and that cold rain seeps into the bones and makes it impossible to get warm. Our woodstove, however, warms the house from the center outward, so it gives the core of the house a decent baseline temp to keep things from getting too cold.
In any case, I didn't have anything particularly pressing to write about this week, so I thought I'd just give y'all some general updates...
The Heart of the Goddess is live!
I think most of you know now that The Heart of the Goddess: An Ian Mac Roy Adventure is now live on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all other platforms. And as promised, I'll be publishing this one as a serial starting on Friday here on Substack. This Ian story will be published one chapter per week for free.
As for future stories about Ian, I am planning a third one, but none of it is written yet. There are a few clues about where it will take place at the end of The Heart of the Goddess, but at this point, that's about all I know about it.
Once the third one is done, I'll publish it as an e-book and then start compiling all three into one print version. That's a ways off, though. If you want to read them sooner than the end of the decade, your best bet is to download the e-books and read them now, because y'all know I'm not super fast with these kinds of things (though still faster than George R. R. Martin!).
Book Four of The Taurin Chronicles: Soultainted
I think I've mentioned book four in passing a few times, but I haven't given y'all much to go on with this one yet. Now that the second Ian story is out of my head, I'm working on Soultainted again. At this point, here's what I can share.
This book's main plotline is focused on drawing a lot of Taurin history forward and connecting a lot of loose ends through the memories of Logan Mac Kendrick/Tadgh/Hector. Logan has had multiple identities over the centuries, and until this point in the series, he's done a pretty good job of keeping them all tightly controlled and tucked away. But as the magic on Taura rises and his body finally starts to deteriorate, so does his mind. The more pronounced the schism grows, the more memories we get and the more connections we make in the lives of Connor, Mairead, Igraine, and Minerva.
By the way, if you don't know how to pronounce "Tadgh," here's a good clip to help. Hint: it's not as hard as it looks. That video spells it differently, but according to Behind the Name, my version is an acceptable variant. I think the first time I saw the name, I saw it spelled "Tadgh," so that's where I landed.
In any case, the book currently stands at about 105,000 words, give or take. It's got a pretty solid first third to half, a fairly firm ending, and a lot of nonsense in the middle that needs to be written or rewritten. I know what has to happen in that part, mostly, so it's really just a matter of actually... you know... writing it.
That's always the hard part. The writing.
Well, the hardest part except for the editing. And the publishing. And promoting.
As for release schedule... I don't have that yet, but now that I'm working on the draft again, I am hoping to have some concrete dates and such for everyone this year. Stay tuned on that.
In the meantime, you can always re-read the prologue here.
A Few Lighter Items...
Finally, just a short roundup of some little tidbits from the huge chunk of my life that doesn't revolve around writing fiction...
On the commercial freelancing front, I've now got four solid clients, and I'm looking for more. These four should give me a fairly predictable amount of work for this year, at least, but I'd like to bring on two or three more, just to keep myself fully booked. I am, however, in a better place than I was last year, so that's good news.
We are planning our first camper excursion for later this month, which has me super excited! We're taking a trip down to see my parents in Southern Idaho, and we might take a couple of detours to explore some things we haven't seen before. We don't have a lot planned for the rest of the summer yet, but we're working on some things... Maybe a trip to see my in-laws, maybe a trip to help our younger son transfer to the university where he's planning to finish his degree--it's a little up in the air.
Small town life continues apace. Three years into this adventure, and I've found a lot of things I like, several things I love, and a few things I hate with a fiery passion (that, honestly, I might have found anywhere). Overall, things are... okay around here.
I'm in the process of giving my office a little refresh. Now that I've lived in it for a few years, I've figured out some better ways to work. Stay tuned for before and after pics... or at least after pics...
I guess that's all I have for now. I have something fun planned for next week, so watch for that! Hint: it expands a favorite scene from Ravenmarked through a different character's perspective.
In the meantime, onward!