I basically took off the rest of September after publishing Last Measure of Devotion. It was a nice break and much needed after finishing the TCOTU series.

This October has been mostly about mapping out my options for my next book. I mentioned these options at the end of LMOD and they haven’t really changed. However, what’s become clear is that I have a much better roadmap for the next sci-fi book than I do for my fantasy book.

Quite frankly, I don’t want to rush the fantasy book (nor any book, honestly). I’m not talented enough to write a good story on demand; they more or less have to evolve naturally.

Consequently, I’m going to begin drafting the first book in the new sci-fi series, which is tentatively labeled (on my spiral notebooks) The Parasite Initiative. The entire series will be four books (plus or minus one). It will begin in the midst of the Brevic-Hollaran war and deal with what happens with the alien race (The Parasites) that Heskan and Lombardi encountered.

The first book will have some characters from the first series, although none of the “primary” characters from Anelace. At least four “non-Anelace” characters will appear in Book 1 in varying amounts.

With the outline I have so far, I think this book will introduce new and different characters that will make this new series stand alone but also connect back to the original series. Readers of the new book will be well-rewarded for reading the TCOTU series.

It’s an ambitious project. The first book will cover a much greater amount of time and could top 400+ pages. That’s a lot of pages for someone like me, who likes to keep my novels tight and fast-paced. However, to do justice to the story, considering the amount of time passing during it, I think it will be necessary. I’ll do my best to cut out scenes that don’t add value to keep density to a minimum.