Oct 8, 2017
I know it’s been a while since I posted an update beyond listing another signing (such as my next one at Chapters Gloucester on October 21 from noon to 4!). Promotional efforts and writing have been taking up the lion’s share of my time and The Tide of Madness is coming together very well, if a little slower than I had hoped. Some characters aren’t making it easy – Jenus, for instance, has decided to go off on an unexpected tangent that actually lets me draw on a little more of the world’s history, and Ruin’s storyline is turning out to be more complex than I had expected and now interconnects with more of the other characters much earlier in the book. The result is something I’m really excited about and I’m hoping you’ll agree that it was worth the wait once you get your hands on it!
The goal is to have the manuscript finished within the next 4-5 months. I have a little bit of time off set aside and I’m planning on shutting myself in for a week at some point this winter to get a full 9 days of writing done. I’ve done this before and made incredible progress, so I’m hopeful that it’ll be enough to keep me on track!
In the meantime, the next week won’t see a lot of writing. I’ll be spending all of next weekend at CAN-CON: Conference on Canadian Content in Speculative Arts... – a conference for speculative fiction writers that takes place right here in Ottawa. Last year was my first time attending and I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s comparatively small for a con since it focuses on writers, but it offers great learning opportunities for writers at every stage of their careers with panels of agents, editors, publishers and some really phenomenal authors that range from fantasy - Steven Erikson (Malazan Books of the Fallen, which are my all time favorite books), to Sci-Fi - Sylvain Neuvel (Themis Files, which I particularly recommend as audiobooks), not to mention some newer names like my fellow Inkshares author J-F. Dubeau who writes both Sci-Fi (The Life Engineered, too short but awesome – Hurry up with that sequel JF!) and horror (A god in the Shed, even better than TLE).
Finally, I know I’ve asked this before, but if you’ve read The Bones of the Past, please take a moment to write a review on Goodreads, Amazon, Kobo, Indigo, B&N or wherever you bought it! Every review makes a world of difference in raising awareness of a new book/author! Also, if you are a member of a library (and if you aren’t you should be!) please ask you library to carry my book!
Thank you all, yet again, for your support!