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Being both a writer and a gamer, It's easy for me to get distracted from working on my books. That's part of the reason why it has taken me years to re-release the second edition of The Freeworlds Chronicles, because I keep getting sucked into playing various MMOs (mainly Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Final Fantasy XIV. They are the biggest culprits.)


But what has been happening lately, is the urge to get back to work on my books has built up in me. And today, I finally tore myself away from my MMO gaming addiction to edit. Not only do I have to re-edit the Freeworlds Chronicles, but I have a new double trilogy called Song of the Multiverse that needs to be edited as well. Work on all 10 books has already begun, but there is still much more work to do. For all intents and purposes the 2nd edition of The Initiate's Crucible is 100% complete and the 2nd edition of Master of Oceania is at 80%. It is my hope to release the 2nd edition of both books by December 31, while releasing the 2nd editions of Curse of the Corruptor, and Riddle of the Ancients in 2017. Then once this re-write has finally been completed I can get to work on Song of the Multiverse in earnest.


I will be working with Amazon Customer Service to push out the second edition to anybody that has purchased or downloaded the previous edition of my books at no charge. I believe that the 2nd editions will make for a much more enjoyable read as many of the problems with the first edition books have been fixed. If you read the books, I hope you will give them a second chance. If you haven't then give them a read. I can honestly say that these have become stories that I would enjoy reading myself.

Writing on the Song of the Multiverse is complete! Volume I is currently being proofed by my friend Tina Norman. In the coming months, I will be rewriting, and rewriting, and rewriting, and rewriting.... well you get the picture. At any rate, I would like to have this out in the fall, but we shall see. I learned from my mistakes with The Freeworlds Chronicles, and I'm not going to rush it this time.


So in order the Song of the Multiverse consists of:
Volume I: Adagio of Awakening
Volume II: Allegro of War
Volume III: Coda of Ascendence
Volume IV: Overture of Destiny
Volume V: Aria of Truth
Volume VI: Anthem of Hope

I hope you all will consider reading when the volumes are released. I had a lot of fun writing them, I hope they are just as enjoyable for you to read. Cheers!

As I am in the process of finishing up the main storyline of the Song of the Multiverse saga, which will tell the story of the Halloran twins, a pair of girls who grew up in Chicago, and have their lives turned upside down when their dimension-hopping father suddenly comes back into their lives and shows them what a wierd place the multiverse really is, I feel the need to pause and reflect on the writing process.


Frankly I am amazed at how a book comes together. Admittedly, I usually only know only about a third of the book when I sit down to write it. I have the major points mentally mapped out, and as I start my story, I often need to pause between scenes to figure out what kind of scene I need to get to the next. And yet somehow, despite my story being mostly an unfinished work in my own mind, filled with blank spots, the story tells itself; first to me in my mind, and then I transcribe it into words on paper. This process gives me the feeling that I am looking into the lives of living characters who exist in a living world. I suppose most writers may feel that about their own work, but I wonder if most writers operate in the same way. In fact, I know from conversations with a good friend and fellow author who writes Historical Fiction that we don't. Some meticulously plan instead, writing detailed notes of every scene before they even begin the writing process.


While I will never say that that approach is any less correct (in fact, it may lead to a better crafted novel than my approach, who knows?) the fact is, I could never write that way. I write by my gut. There is intuition, and emotion involved, and for me a big part of the joy of writing is seeing that surprise scene that I never planned but completely nails it when it comes to explaining a character's motivation, or moving the story forward coming out on the page. I think myself and other authors who write like this need to tap into something somewhere that feeds us our inspiration. When I close my eyes and wonder what that something might be a picture of a swirling jumble of ideas fills my mind, but that might just be the product of my over-active imagination. At any rate, the fact that I can be surprised by my own story when it changes directions when I didn't expect it to is a big part of the joy of writing. I just have to be mindful that I don't meander, and that every scene that I write contributes to the story, and doesn't send me down a rabbit-trail. I hate rabbit-trails.


Anyway, that is a peek into my creative process. Truth-be-told, I don't even understand it entirely myself, but I am so very intrigued by it. I hope you will read and enjoy all 6 novels of the Song of the Multiverse when they come out (I'm about halfway through writing on Volume VI right now), and also give the 2nd Edition of the Freeworlds Chronicles a read. Vol I: The Initiates Crucible will be coming out very soon as it is 99% rewritten and ready to go.

Sometimes, despite our best efforts otherwise, the stories inside us just have to be told. While Song of the Multiverse Volume I: Adagio of Awakening was being beta-read by a few friends, I wanted to really put some time into finishing up the second edition of the Freeworlds Chronicles, (Vol I: The Initiate's Crucible is 99% there) but I just couldn't put off working on the second trilogy of Song of the Mutiverse any longer.

The next three books will feature Lexi as the main character as she navigates the intrigues and politics of the Courts of Chaos and eventually sets herself on righting an ancient wrong woven into the foundations of the 8 Courts. The books will be titled:

Volume IV: Overture of Destiny

Volume V: Aria of Truth

Volume VI: Cadenza of Hope

Volumes II and III; "Allegro of War" and " Coda of Ascendence" have been completed, with Vol II totalling 270 pages, and Coda of Ascendence totalling 224 at this point. Now comes the long process of editing, but I have to say, I am very proud of this story and these characters. I hope that this story will not only be entertaining, but have some emotional impact and maybe even be a little thought-provoking, and if people like it, there are the seeds of a second trilogy with Lexi as the main character written into Volume III.


I hope it will be as much fun for all of you to read as it was for me to write!

I just finished the first draft of "Adagio of Awakening" and it is 172 pages of awesome. I will be putting a few snippets from the book up here soon so that you can see for yourself.


Now on to work on Volume II: "Allegro of War."

So it's the end of November, and the ground is covered in snow. Personally I hate snow. It's insidious. It sits under your tires and turns into ice, sending you skidding into other cars and trees or whatever, cackling like a serial villain the whole time. I tend to turn into a homebody during the winter which is a good thing because I can devote more of my time to my writing.


I know I have been saying this for the better part of a year, but work on The Freeworlds Chronicles, 2nd edition is progressing. Rewriting a 4-novel tetralogy is not an easy thing, neither is tearing myself away from video gaming to work on them. I had about a 4-month period over the summer where I got so sucked into MMO gaming that I did absolutely no writing. To readers who are anticipating reading my work (if there are even any of you out there) I'm sorry. At any rate, I've completed one sweep through, cleaning up most of the typos that got through the editing process. There are some changes I am wrestling with, however, and that is part of what is causing the delay. Plus I want to give the books at least one or two more sweeps before I re-publish them.


Writing on Project Prometheus was completed a year ago. I am also wrestling with some changes that have been suggested by my proofreaders. I expect to publish this at some point next year, but like George R.R. Martin says, it will be ready when it's ready, not before. Of course, I have no allusions of being George R.R. Martin. I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum. I can do this because few are aware of me, so I don't really have to worry about disappointing my readers. But the motivation is the same. I would rather put out a quality, finished product than regret publishing it too early and have to go back and fix it like I am having to with The Freeworld Chronicles


But I've saved the best for last. in addition to working on editing these two projects simultaneously, I am also working on a new project: The Song of the Multiverse Saga This project is planned to be a trilogy, with the three volumes titled Adagio of Awakening, Allegro of War, and Coda of Ascendence. The Song of the Multiverse Saga is the story of two twin sisters, who are rescued by a mysterious dimension-traveling fellow who calls himself Watanabe from an illegal experiment, and discover that the multiverse is far stranger than they ever imagined. I hope you will consider reading it when it comes out!


So that is where things stand right now. Thanks for reading, and thanks for your patience and support. I will let you know more soon as things become clearer on when projects will be ready for release (or re-release).


Until then, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwansaa, and Happy New Year!

Lately, as I have been working on my rewrite of The Freeworlds Chronicles I have been reflecting on the road I took to get here, and I have also been feeling the urge to share that road with you, my readers.


I always wanted to create. I began drawing at a very young age, and I never stopped. To this day, I still draw, but writing was different. I didn't really feel the urge to write until I was 11. I wrote this short story about a test pilot, who crashed his prototype fighter jet in the jungle, and had to survive. Now keep in mind, I was 11 at the time, so if that story ever surfaces I will cry tears of embarrassment, because I'm sure that my wordcraft was hideous. But the desire to tell a story and record it for others to read was there. I wrote another story at 13 for English class in Junior High School. I'm sure this was also awful. But to my recollection I didn't really write much after that until I was 19, when after watching a particularly unimpressive episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, I said aloud that "I could have written a better episode than that!" Then Lee Kelley, who was sitting across the room from me replied "Well, why don't you?"


That got me thinking, and shortly after, I set out to write my first epic saga: the story of a red-headed wild-elf who burned with the desire for revenge against the emperor who'd had her tribe slaughtered. It was bloody awful. I had graduated High School, passed all my English classes, and still had little concept for basic grammar, let alone the writing process. Thanks public school system!


But even still there was Justus Richards, who was a never-ending well of encouragement for me. At his urging I kept writing when I wanted to quit. And I worked on project after project for the next decade until at age 29, I finally had something in my hands that I felt I could offer to a publisher: a story of gods living disguised as ordinary people and fighting a secret war in modern-day society. however, real-life circumstances forced me to shift my focus away from writing for awhile, and that project fell to the wayside, and still languishes unpublished to this very day.


Then at age 35, I got this idea for the Septastrum - an ancient relic, broken into seven parts that when assembled gave it's wielder godlike power. I toyed with different incarnations of this story for the next seven years, and even considered making it an online webcomic, a cartoon, and an MMORPG. But in 2012, I watched a documentary on Netflix called The People v. George Lucas and it rekindled my love for the Star Wars Universe. I set out to make my own Star Wars, came up with a main character, whom I named Abby Ashford, and a master who was an alien named Jax Idor, put them in a Jedi-like order, which I named the Galactic Psi-Corps, and then created a world with a problem for them to solve. Voila! You have the Initiate's Crucible. But with the Initiate's Crucible I hadn't even begun to tell the story I really wanted to tell: The story of Abby's pursuit of the Septastrum. So you have the trilogy that follows: Master of Oceania, Curse of the Corruptor, and Riddle of the Ancients. But this Septastrum storyline and Star Wars were not my only influences. The Oracles of Anai were heavily inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender, as was the Divinity Effect. Originally I never intended for Master Idor to die, but I think for Abby to grow as a character as quickly as she had to he needed to be out of the picture. Besides, isn't the story of two planet-hopping teenage girls saving the Multiverse with no supervision, and getting into and out of trouble fun and compelling?


But in my excitement, I pushed the books out to publication too fast. The stories were mostly there but not fully developed, and there were errors. It was a rookie mistake. So while I am working on this second edition, I will be pushing back the release of my other book Project Prometheus to focus on this. As each book is ready for re-release I will announce it on Twitter. The books will be available in print on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, CreateSpace, and other online retailers. In ebook format they will be available exclusively on Amazon. If at some point in the future there is enough interest I may explore branching out to offering the ebook through iTunes as well but for now if you want to read the Freeworlds Chronicles, you will need the Kindle App. Sorry for the inconvenience. If you have purchased the first edition of the books, the second edition will be pushed out to you through Amazon at no charge.


I hope you will enjoy reading or even re-reading the books, and I hope you are entertained by Abby, Qaeli, and the Freeworlds Chronicles Multiverse.

Stay tuned, and as Stan Lee would say, Excelsior!

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https://mangazine2014.wordpress.com/2015/08/04/why-15-an-hour-isnt-a-great-idea/

Click Here to read for yourself.