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LASER FOCUS

Posted on July 18, 2020

I wanted to inform readers of my plan for the rest of 2020 and 2021 as they have changed.

I am shelving the Ty Wallace book for now. Beta readers brought up legit concerns, and I want to step back from the novel before returning to it.

This Lemon Saves the World was 70% complete when I realized the tone of the book wasn't matching with my audience and the multiple POVs were fracturing the story too much. I immediately got a better idea for it and will be returning to that book later. Luckily, the new idea should make it a shorter and leaner novel.

I worked a lot on the Lemon book during the first half of 2020, and was just not producing as much writing as I usually do. I think it was in part the fact that I knew the book was flailing about and losing direction, but I was also feeling that way in real life with the lockdown and having to teach my fifth graders from home.

When Ty Wallace Versus the Hereafter came back from the beta readers with a less than sterling critique, I reflected on my work and found a way out of my slump.

I immediately set to work these past three weeks on Displaced Heroes, a new book, crafting a three-act summary, character studies of the three leads, and a chapter outline of the narrative. This allowed me to move faster and with more confidence. In three weeks' time, I had 51,000 words and found myself excited to write each morning. The characters are just so wonderful and developed. I took my own personality and some aspects of my friends from childhood to fashion each character. I wanted each lead to be removed from the world in some fashion and through their adventure learn that they shouldn't cut off the outside world. The story became one of healing misfits and it works so very well.

Hugo is inward and socially awkward because he retreats into tech/games and hides his true self behind a façade off sarcasm. One aspect of me.

Lou is closed off because she's still grieving the loss of her father. She is a comic book fan because it was a hobby he showed her how to love. Again, the father and daughter are amalgams of my own daughter and myself.

Nelson was the hardest and easiest to write. I wanted to feature a character that was autistic but had not been diagnosed. I also wanted to push myself and write a black character. Nelson retreats from others and often lacks empathy to his fellow humans but connects so richly with nature. He loves animals and plants and his journey is one of self-discovery through the eyes of others. This character was based on my experiences teaching a variety of students and a very close friend from college.

I am so excited by the personal story this fantasy tells. It has humor, adventure, emotion, and connection. I have two more weeks before I head back to whatever teaching will look like this Fall. I plan to write the last 30,000-40,000 words during that time. I want to get this out to my beta readers in September and plan to release it in November.

So here are my plans for this year and next:

November 2020
-Publish Displaced Heroes

March 2021
-Publish This Lemon Saves the World

August 2021
-Publish Book 3 of Turncoats: Overthrown and the Turncoats Omnibus collecting the trilogy

January 2022
-Publish a new TBD book

Please do check out my recent books. I think readers would love Arcana Creek, With a Side of Universal Destruction, and the Graham Omnibus!

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