Christmas is upon us. Not long after it becomes behind us, 2016 will do the same. Yes, the time of resolutions is nearly here. We'll all be off sodas and on treadmills. For a few glorious hours, or perhaps even days, our entire perception of reality will change. No longer will we be consumed by our own greed and lusts. We'll be better, better eaters, better sleepers, better souls. We'll become what we were always meant to be, and then, shortly thereafter, we'll remember that we enjoy eating pizza while binge watching whatever show Netflix chooses to put out. It's who we are, and it's who we'll be for at least 340 or so days in 2017.
Now, that's not to say that we shouldn't have goals for ourselves, and it's not even to say that those goals can't be tied to the new year. For me, for the portion of my life that I share here on this blog, I have writing goals. Looking back at the two years I've been doing this, I've written close to 300k words in both years. How the calendar worked out with publishing those words makes it look like 2016 was far more productive than 2015, but it really wasn't. My output went up marginally. I want it to do so again in 2017. My goal is to actually pass 300k words this coming year. We'll see if I make it.
So, what are those words going to be about? Well, let's look at what's happening now to answer that question of what's still to come. As a refresher, I write in two worlds. That number will grow in the future, but it's just Fulorn and Bookland for now. Fulorn, of course, is the setting for my first series, The Kinmark Saga, and the larger work of which it is the beginning, The Song of Creation. It's a serious world, and the stories set there are best described as gritty and character-driven. Aside from that first complete series I wrote, there are currently two novellas that take place there. You can read them before or after the series. For more information on all of that, go to the tab above labeled "One Story." After all, Fulorn is my first and primary world. Its story is the main one I'm writing and will take a long time to complete.
But I needed a break, didn't I? And that's where Bookland came in. Without rehashing all of history, let's just say that it grew from a very simple idea (What if the characters knew they were characters?) and it's a world more lighthearted than Fulorn. Now, I don't want to give off the wrong impression here. Bookland isn't some joke. The setting is parody, yes, and the world is slightly ridiculous. But the characters are very real, and some very real things happen to them along the way. Not all of them are pleasant. The thing I've said time and time again is that The Story of Bookland, that's the name of the series, is a serious fantasy story being told through the lens of parody. The humor is the highest level, the most obvious, but there are darker elements beneath that superficial front. They come out more and more as the story develops.
Speaking of that development, I have an update. Bookland, of course, was released a few months back. Well, Literalia, the second book in the series, is now also ready for publishing. I've edited it over and over again and can't stand the thought of doing so again. That's a pretty good sign that it's ready. So, I submitted it on Amazon and Createspace today. It should be available tonight or tomorrow or Saturday. We'll see. I'm really excited about it getting out there, and I'm even more excited about getting started on the next one.
I'm also rather nervous about that, however. It's going to be a challenge to write this next book. To call my plans for it ambitious would be a bit of an understatement. If I pull off what I'm going for, it could be the one that we all look back on as changing this series from a fun story into a truly explosive one. If not, it could be the worst thing I've ever written. I could see it going either way, because the elements coming up are really big and extremely weird. But, the great part of being self-published is that I can just go for it, and that's what I'm going to do.
By the way, if you haven't yet started this series, I suggest waiting a few days to do so. As part of Literalia's release, I'll be putting Bookland on sale for $0.99 at some point next week. I'll be sure to announce it on here when I know exactly what days that's going to be, but I'd hate for you to waste $2 in the meantime. Then again, I suppose it wouldn't hurt my feelings all that much. Perhaps you should just go buy all my books. Yes, I think that would be wise. In fact, buy them all twice. I'm always taking donations to the Feed-a-Josh Foundation!
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