Looking Ahead at What’s to Come in 2023
In November I’ll have been an independent author for two years and I’ve definitely noticed a step change in how much busier I’ve become over the past twelve months. My writing life has slowly changed from a private hobby I did as and when I chose into a publicly facing business with (loose) deadlines, conferences, panels and podcast appearances. It’s been fun but I’ve also realised I need to think carefully about my goals and objectives for the next twelve months, as I only have a finite amount of time and energy.
Family life is always very busy and, like most writers, I have a full-time job that pays the bills – one that can be demanding at times. Working around those things to release the first three books in The Brotherhood of the Eagle series each year has been a real balancing act. I know a lot of people are expecting me to bring out the fourth and final instalment, Broken Brotherhood, to physical and virtual bookshelves next year. That’s a reasonable expectation, even though as I write this Lost Gods hasn’t actually gone live yet (release date is 1st November 2022). However, my plans for 2023 are a little bit different and to explain why I need to talk about my writing process and the difficult journey I had publishing Lost Gods.
It's fair to say no one had heard of me when my first novel, Hall of Bones, came out in November 2020 (that assessment still stands to be honest!). The book was released with no real marketing plan and once family and friends had kindly bought a copy to support me things drifted for a while, sales and pages read barely shifting when the sequel, Sundered Souls, came out in July 2021. It took twelve months for my books to start to gain any kind of traction. Making the SPFBO 7 finals helped raise the profile of Hall of Bones in a way that no amount of social media posting and Facebook adverts could. It’s a moment I’ll always look back on with gratitude because it changed everything. The following year has seen word of mouth slowly start to spread and that magical thing for an author began to happen – when people read a book and then recommend it to their friends. If you want to do one thing to help an author then please tell other people about a book you’ve enjoyed. Believe me, it makes all the difference.
During this period my output looked great, as I was able to maintain a pace where I was releasing one book per year. However, what a lot of people don’t realise is I’ve been working on The Brotherhood of the Eagle series for a long time. Hall of Bones was written between 2011-2015 and went through significant edits in 2016 prior to going on publisher submission. When I decided to publish independently I edited the book again in 2020, prior to release. As I worked on my other books and my writing craft improved I actually went through another edit of the novel in 2021, prior to entering the SPFBO competition. I’ve since done another edit of the novel this year, using different techniques I now use to self-edit my work (this aspect would be another blog post in its own right), to polish it further and iron out any annoying typos.
Releasing a book independently is easy. Releasing a book that’s as polished and professional as anything you’d see in a traditional high street bookstore, when you have to do virtually everything yourself, is much more of a challenge. The last two years have been a steep learning curve for me and the one key lesson has been these things cannot be rushed unless you want the quality to suffer. In particular, you need to have breaks from your manuscript, so you see it afresh when you come back to the next draft. Those gaps may not seem like writing but actually your subconscious is always working on your novel.
I began putting down the first ideas for Sundered Souls in late 2015 and the first draft was written in 2016-2018, after which I put the manuscript away as I waited to see if Hall of Bones would be picked up by one of the publishing houses. 2021 was focussed heavily on editing Sundered Souls before independent publication. Prior to that, in 2018-2019 I pushed on and wrote the first draft of Lost Gods. This was a long book, the original version clocking in at 200,000 words, although at 18 months it was also the shortest time I’d taken to write a novel from start to finish. By the time I was done I knew I would need a fourth book to complete the Brotherhood series.
This was also the point when I really hit the buffers and seriously doubted I would ever complete the saga.
All writers develop their craft over time and I could see how mine was improving. However, I was also becoming more ambitious and the large cast of characters and multiple story arcs that are the hallmarks of the Brotherhood series were my undoing. My ambition outstripped my ability and Lost Gods was a mess of incoherent storytelling and poor/inconsistent characterisation. By the time the book was finished I was exhausted and, more worryingly, I didn’t know how to fix it.
Until that point, I only wanted to write The Brotherhood of the Eagle. Now I couldn’t stand the thought and I needed something fresh. Part of me was also worried that I wouldn’t be able to think up any new ideas or create characters that were as complex and compelling as those found in Brotherhood. In 2019 I sat down and began to put down the first few ideas for a new novel, in a completely new setting with a different cast of characters. 12 months later, I had a finished novel called A Quiet Vengeance, a story far removed from the cold world of my Viking-inspired Laskan tales. The sample back cover copy gives you an idea of what this is about:
Nimsah is an abandoned child living on the streets of Bengarath, surviving on her wits as part of a criminal gang in the City of Tents, home to the dispossessed. Dojan is the Crown Prince of the Emirate of Fujareen, enjoying a life of luxury in Bengarath Palace. Their lives are brought together as the threat of war looms in the neighbouring city state of Kandarah. However, Dojan and Nimsah share a secret, one that will set in motion a chain of events leading to vengeance.
I really needed that reset and time away. Doing something different was a tonic and by the time A Quiet Vengeance was done in 2020, I was ready to take the plunge and release Hall of Bones. Crucially, all of this gave me time away from the dreaded Lost Gods manuscript. When I eventually came back to it, fresh from editing the first two books, I found my skills had now improved sufficiently to tackle this rambling mess of a book.
All of this means my writing journey has been through different phases. Lots of creativity and new content from 2011-2020 and a very heavy focus on editing my ‘back-catalogue’ for the last two years, since I’ve moved into independent publication.
So, what does all this mean for The Brotherhood of the Eagle? The short answer is the fourth and final book, Broken Brotherhood, has only advanced as far as the outline plotting stage. Aside from a few scraps of phrases, I haven’t written a single chapter of that book. My plan is to begin writing the novel before Christmas and work on this solidly throughout 2023. However, because of the need to tie up the many character and plot strands established by the first three books, I’m expecting Broken Brotherhood to be similar in length to Lost Gods – around 190,000 words. Whilst I hope to have the first draft written by next year the need to have breaks and take time away from the manuscript, as well as going through the full editorial process, means a realistic release date will be early 2024. I’d love to be ready to publish before then but only if I think the book is up to the standards of the first three. The good news is I’m really looking forward to writing something new after such a prolonged period of editing and I’ll keep you posted on how things are going.
That said, I still hope to release books (yes, books plural) in 2023.
First of all, I’ve decided to independently publish A Quiet Vengeance in early 2023. Yes, it means more editing but the novel is fully written and relatively short. It works as a standalone, although I do have plans to expand on this world. There are a few deliberate loose ends in A Quiet Vengeance I can build upon in subsequent books, although I see this as being more of a loosely connected series of standalones, each focussed on different characters. As a writer, it’s also important for me to start thinking about a career that extends beyond a single series. A Quiet Vengeance will be my first step along that road.
I’m also involved in a collaborative project involving a number of other writers. I can’t say too much about this at the moment, because we have a series of launch events scheduled in the coming months. However, if things go to plan I’ll be part of a short story collection that’ll come out next year. This project has been great as I’ve had to come up with some new ideas and it’s been a welcome break from what’s often felt like constant editing. I think this collection could be something really special and I’m looking forward to sharing more details with you as soon as I can.
Alongside this activity, I’ll also be continuing my own short story side-quest with The Wolf Throne. If you haven’t already heard about this, I write short stories set in The Brotherhood of the Eagle world which I release for free with my bi-monthly newsletter. Out of this came the idea for The Wolf Throne, when one of my short story characters, Ingioy Whiteoak, wandered into my mind and simply refused to leave! I’m currently conducting a public experiment, where I write a short story episode of The Wolf Throne which is also part of a longer story arc. Each story is designed to be read as a standalone in its own right, although together they will eventually comprise a new novel. If you want to join in on these stories and see how my ideas unfold, you can sign up for my newsletter by going to my Contact page.
The Wolf Throne is useful for a number of reasons. There’s something very satisfying about writing a short story with a beginning, middle and end within the space of a week or two. Novel writing can be a slog and it can feel like you’ll never get to the end of the process, especially during the editing stage. The Wolf Throne provides me with a welcome break and, more importantly, the format and long-term goal means I need to think very carefully about my craft and narrative structure. Rather than getting in the way of my novel output, I’ve found having these breaks has really helped increase my productivity.
A few people have asked me about things like hardcover copies, audiobooks and signed copies of my books. These are also things that are definitely on my ‘to do’ list and they will happen. However, I’m a firm believer that at this early stage in my writing career, I need to be focussed on getting books out and in particular completing The Brotherhood of the Eagle series now more readers are becoming invested in that world. Based on my early ideas, Broken Brotherhood should be a fitting way to end a series that will always hold a special place in my heart.
So, those are my reflections and plans for the year ahead. Well done for getting to the end of a longer than normal post. If you have any thoughts or questions on what I’ve written this month then feel free to post a comment below. Otherwise, I’d better get cracking on all these things I’ve said I’m going to do!
