With Chronicles of the Roc Rider nearing the end of its beta read, wherein I’ll have to examine the feedback and decide its future, I’ve taken a bit of time to mull over my options for post Roc Rider work so I’ll know what to dive into next. There are numerous potential projects that are partially written or developed, in part due to a stint of several years working on multiple projects at a time in a misguided attempt to improve my overall productivity. I eventually realized that no matter how I divided up my time between them, doing so would always result in all of my writing projects taking far longer to complete. I now focus on just one writing project at a time again, although I will work on others during downtime on a particular story, for example while Roc Rider is out on beta read. Any of you interested blog readers can chime in on what you’d be most interested in seeing next.
Roc Rider Sequels/Novel Adaptation
Obviously if Roc Rider does end up making it to print there will be its planned sequels to consider. I have also had at least one beta reader suggest I would be better off to take the current writing and the material planned for the sequels and develop them as a stand-alone full-length novel instead. I have my own reasons for being quite hesitant about this option but will consider it.
The 3-Day Novel Book
Of course I have the book I wrote for the 3-Day novel contest which could potentially be revised and polished as is or, maybe though I’m not sure, expanded into a full-length novel.
Novels
In terms of full-length books I have several potential things:
Untitled Novel
This currently nameless book follows the adventures of Shara Fordell, a bounty hunter who takes on a contract to recover a stolen artifact that could resurrect a dead god, and makes a dangerous discovery about her own heritage.
This book is right smack in the middle of its first draft. It was one of the other projects I had in full swing when I realized I needed to focus on just one, and chose to finish Roc Rider first, figuring that book would go faster. I basically already know how this book ends, its just a matter of finishing it. My only hang-up with this one is, since my experiment with story treatments appears to be a success, I need to decide whether to finish this book as is without one, or to write up a treatment for the remainder of the book before continuing.
Griffinlar Sequels:
The Legend of Griffinlar, unpublished, follows James, Fenix, and Rose; a farmer, a knight, and a princess who must rely on each other to save their nation from the return of an old and vengeful enemy.
This book is too long to garner any interest from today’s publishers, although about average for an epic fantasy novel of its kind. Also, last time I checked, the book’s length made it too expensive, for potential readers, to consider independently publishing it even as an ebook (long explanation regarding the ebook part of that I won’t get into in this post). Its possible this could have changed, but I somehow doubt it. Still, the three planned sequels to Griffinlar are nevertheless highly requested by those who have read the first installment. To be honest its been long enough now that a part of me is hesitant to revisit the world of Griffinlar for fear I’d be unable to recapture the same magic that makes the first one such a compelling read. Nevertheless, its an option, and I do have a very solid plan of how the story progresses in the subsequent books.
Of course, as things stood the last time I looked into Griffinlar, the only possibility for publishing it in any vein would be to break the first book up into several smaller books, which would be far more difficult to pull off well than it sounds. I’m not sure the story would survive such a reformatting in a way that would command the same desire for sequels as the original.
Coldfire Prequel:
Coldfire, unpublished, follows Ward Griffin, a warlock in a small Wyoming town who already has his hands full caring for his autistic brother and keeping the local werewolf in line. Just as he loses his job his ex-girlfriend shows up, begging his help against a demon who can give nightmare’s flesh; a demon who is in desperate need of a human host.
While this book suffered from a number of problems in the writing I was eventually able to complete it and produce an enjoyable read from it. To make a long explanation short, issues were identified in beta read that prevented me from independently publishing it as I had originally intended. While the book is certainly fixable with effort, I decided my time would be better invested moving on to other projects rather than rewrite the book then. In mulling over Coldfire‘s future I eventually determined that I was too close to the material to rewrite the book as is. The only way I could gain the sufficient distance from it to rewrite Coldfire in the way it needs would be to change the plan for the series, writing a totally new Ward Griffin novel to be the first book and making Coldfire the second or third in the series. I have some ideas for the new Ward Griffin book but nothing I’ve made a concerted effort to develop yet.
Partially Developed Ideas
I have several ideas for full-length books currently in the early stages of development that have been winking at me lately. Since I’m sure no one wants to hear about things that are just ideas I’ll refrain going into detail but these are definitely options on top of everything else.
What do you think loyal blog readers? Do any of these projects intrigue you more than the others? Or do they all sound terrible and I should go back to the drawing board? I want to hear your thoughts.
