It’s Update Time

So, I lied.  In the last post, I said that I was going to concentrate on a stand-alone book that I was a quarter of the way finished with.  I spent a day writing on that one afterward, but it just didn’t feel right.  I couldn’t get into the flow of the story.  The reason, I still had the ARES Virus story strong in my mind.  So, I saved that one and opened a fresh document.  I can’t tell you how daunting it is to stare at a the utter blankness of the “paper,” knowing that there are nearly 100,000 words that will need to be typed.  The number of words aside, there’s a story that needs to be formulated and put into sequence, all the while making sure that all of the parts fit.  Well, the story began flowing from the outset, letting me know that the correct decision was made.  Last night, I closed on the quarter mark on the third book of ARES Virus.  At the moment, I’m planning in titling this one ARES Virus: Phoenix Rising.

What about the second book, you ask?  It is still at the editors and should be back in my hands by the end of next week.  Then, a few more eyes to look at it.  I also had a good friend who is a high-ranking member of the Navy take a look at the naval operations.  I have a few things to change with regards to that part of the story, and then I hit the publish button.  So, two weeks…hopefully.  Within the next couple of days, I’ll be posting a cover reveal on Facebook.  I have to say that Dean Samed has done his magic once again with this one.

Well, that’s about it for the time being.  ARES Virus: White Horse in about two weeks, then ARES Virus: Phoenix Rising perhaps around Christmas time – no promises.  I hope you are having a fantastic week!

John

ARES Virus: White Horse nearly ready

The second book of the ARES Virus series is at the editor.  It has a couple of editing rounds which I’m hoping will be complete near the end of October.  A Halloween release would be awesome, but I don’t think it will be ready by then.  Oh well.  While it’s in editing, I’m working on a stand alone book that I’ve been working on for some time.  This one has super cool creatures, much different than those I have created in the two other series.  I want to get this one finished before moving on to Book 3 in the ARES Virus.  Yes, yes, I know…Book 11 of A New World.  That one may follow once these two are published.  I’ve also been tossing around the fantasy book that has been rattling around my skull for years.  And then there’s the military/horror fiction series I want to begin – perhaps bringing Jack and Red Team back to head up that series.  We’ll see.

Well, that’s my update.  I hope everyone is having the best of days!

John

ARES Update

The second book of ARES Virus is moving along, although I’ve taken the last couple of days off.  The next time I sit at the keyboard, the story will have reached the 2/3 mark, or something close.  Dean Samed has already designed the cover for it, which will be revealed once I send the draft off for the final editing.  And yes, the cover is another masterpiece and I can’t wait to unveil it.

As I found with the New World series, some characters emerge that weren’t originally supposed to be a thing.  As I’ve mentioned before, Gonzalez was a placeholder for the one of the Red Team members.  I found that I enjoyed writing about her for some reason and became fascinated with her story. Thus, she turned into a major character, becoming Jack’s confidant.  I am finding the same in ARES Virus.  The character that is filling my mind and emerging is Emily.  She was just a thought for a situation that Brown and the cadets would find themselves up against.  At first, my mind was blank, the notion of a rescue filtering in.  Then, the rescue of a little girl.  I found myself written into a corner, though.  Brown and the cadets were supposed to integrate back in, but that couldn’t happen with Emily in tow.  I tried killing her off with an emotionally-charged scene.  Tears would flow, the loss of a little girl weighing on hearts, but the story line would be back on track.  She wouldn’t die.  The more she hung around, the more she became more than a placeholder.  I liked her.  The bitten part, well, that came about as I was writing the scene.  I stared at the screen, and stared some more.  What had I done?  But, once written, it’s part of the story.  And now, Emily is off on her own adventure. Because of her, the ending I had in mind has altered.  That’s the joy of writing in this manner.  I get to be surprised and am dragged along with the story, intrigued as to what will happen next.

I’m not sure when the second book will be ready, but if I tie myself to the keyboard, it could be around the end of the month or the beginning of October.  I again want to thank everyone for all of your support and hope your week is treating you well!

John

What’s on the Horizon

Well, ARES Virus: Arctic Storm has been released for the most part.  Early this coming week, I’ll get that out on paperback with the audio most likely following later this year.  At the moment, I’m writing on the next book in the series, most likely the last one.  I had intended for the tale to be a single issue, but it ran away from me.  The story will probably only be two books, but we’ll see.  As it stands now, the first draft is nearly a quarter of the way finished.

Following the completion of this series, I have another book a quarter of the way finished that I’ll dive back into.  That will probably be a stand alone book and I’m interested in getting back to it because of the creatures involved.  Then, I’ll have to see what direction I go.  I could begin the 11th book in A New World, or I have a prologue completed detailing Jack’s earlier life.  I’m not sure which one I’ll do first, but I’ll try to remain busy at the keyboard.

I want to thank everyone for sticking with me through this past dry spell and I hope life is treating you well.

John

ARES Virus: Arctic Storm on Amazon

ARES Virus: Arctic Storm Released

What would happen if a viral agent was released on American soil? How would local agencies react? How would the military respond? What if it was one of their own? Would they own it or attempt to cover it up? If a major operation was jeopardized because of the release, would that alter any of the decisions?

Well, after a long hiatus – far too long – I have released the first book in a new series, ARES Virus: Arctic Storm. I attempted to take a little different angle from A New World with this one, which was and still is difficult to do. I wanted to look at an apocalyptic event from a little higher perspective while still retaining a survivor points of view.  The difficult aspect is to not write the same books as in A New World.  The problem I faced was that I felt I had covered most of the scenarios one might face in such an event and had to come up with something different.  I hope that I managed to achieve that.

I have to say that it was hard to get back into the writing mode following the tenth book in A New World.  Although my mind was crowded with ideas, I couldn’t bring myself to stare at a blank piece of paper to begin the arduous task of filling that void with words.  It was what I assume postpartum depression might feel like.  At any rate, I sat down and forced the first few words to spill onto page one, then page two, etc.  Finally, the flow began and I lost what day it was.  I want to thank everyone for staying with me.  If you happen to pick up a copy, I hope that you enjoy the story.

To pick up your copy:
Amazon
Smashwords

Coming soon to other stores and paperback

It’s Been A While

I apologize for the severe lack of posts and updates.  I put everything I had into the ten books of A New World, having enough left to co-author the two books of A Shrouded World with Mark Tufo.  After I wrote the last word, placed the last period, I was drained and needed time to recuperate.  That took longer than I anticipated.  I tried writing on a couple of books, but those just kind of faded away.  I felt like I was merely rewriting the same scenes over and over.  The ideas rattling around my limited brain space never ceased, I just wasn’t able to put them on paper.

Feeling much more energized, I strapped myself into a chair and began pecking away at the keys.  At first, it was a difficult process, but it became easier the farther into the story I went.  Then, the flow began until I stared at the paper and said, “Wow, I’m done.”  The current story that I’m working on was supposed to be a stand-alone book, but the tale escalated and I decided to make two books out of it.  The first book, ARES Virus: Arctic Storm, is in the last stage of the first round edits.  That should be finished tomorrow and the book sent off to the editor.  After turning those bleeding pages into something readable, and upon approving the cover, I will press the publish button.  I’m hoping that will be toward the end of the month, or the first part of August.

While I’m waiting for the edits to come back, I’ll be writing a short story based on A New World for a popular magazine.  I’m not sure if I can give those details as yet, but I will when I can.  Then, it’s off to finish book two of the ARES Virus, which is already close to being twenty percent complete.  The plan after this mini-series is complete is to visit book eleven of A New World.  No promises, but I would like to write another one in that series.

So, there’s my update and, again, my apologies for my absence and hope everyone is doing well.

John

Where is it?

Well.  It’s not here…yet.  I have the companion book of short stories that I’m editing at the moment.  I’m not sure when it will be ready for the viewing world, but it should be soon.

A companion book?  What do you mean by that?

Good question and thanks for asking.  I have written a series of short stories, some of which loosely tie in with the main story line.  Most of them, however, are just brief tales of others experiencing the downfall of humankind and the rise of the night runners.  I had also opened it up for a fan fiction section for readers to submit short stories set within the framework of A New World.  Great stories, one and all.  Some will be included toward the end of the book. Others will be included in a second book of short stories that will be written later – most likely sometime this summer.

After the companion book is published, it will be a short break while I compile notes for the tenth book in the series.  May will be a busy month so I’m not sure how much will actually get accomplished.  And summer is coming.  See what I did there…Game of Thrones turned…oh, never mind.  Too much or too little caffeine.

Your messages and reviews for Reckoning were way above anything I ever expected.  I seriously have these out-of-body experiences reading them.  When I realize that they’re actually written about something I wrote, I just sit feeling so humble.  At any rate, before I begin weeping out of control, see…caffeine, I just wanted to say thank  you!  You are truly the best.

And, if you happen to have a spare moment, would you mind heading over and leaving reviews on the books.  I would greatly appreciate it.

So, I really put some words on the screen without saying much.  The companion book, A New World: Untold Stories, will be out hopefully by the end of the month.  I’ll be doing a cover reveal today or tomorrow on Facebook.  Thank you again, and I hope you all have an awesome week!

John

Time for an Update

I know that I’ve said this many, many times, perhaps every time, but I suck at blogging and keeping everyone updated.  So, here it is, update time.

I first of all want to thank everyone for the great reviews on the last book.  I really appreciate you taking your time to come back and post reviews.  I read each and every one of them and ma humbled by your support.  And I would also like to thank you for all of your kind messages.  They truly make my day.

Okay, so, I said an update.  It’s been a little busy lately so I’ll try to keep this brief.  I am currently working on a companion book to the series.  It’s a set of short stories of others around the time when everything fell apart.  I wanted to do this to give a wider view of what people went through.  I passed through the 51k word count mark last night.  What does that mean?  I really have no idea.  I would like to make this a full novel length but I’m not sure at this point.  Nor do I know when I’ll be finished with it.  I guess that’s not much of an update, eh.  The writing has been slow lately but I’m hoping to pick that up now.  I’m hoping to have this one finished and out sometime by the end of April.  We’ll just see how that plan goes. 🙂

Once I finish with the companion novel, I’ll be starting on book number 10.  There are a lot of ends to tie up following the last one and I’m excited to get to it.  Jack and the gang have taken care of one headache but another, potentially more deadly one, looms on the horizon.  There are a lot of decisions to make and time is not their friend.  And no, I haven’t forgotten the collaboration with Mark Tufo.  We’ve been chatting and will get to it when our writing schedules allow.  Just know that it hasn’t sunk below the waves as yet.

I hope your week has been treating you well and the upcoming weekend is a fun one for you!  Thank you all so much once again!

John

Chaos FB Welcome Page2

A New World: Reckoning

Well, in a rather anti-climactic moment, I put the last word and period on the draft of the next book, A New World: Reckoning, last night.  I say it was anti-climactic because there was no build up inside of me anticipating the story, at least this book anyway, drawing to an end.  It just kind of, well, ended.  That being said, I have no idea when the editing will be complete and the book ready to be published.  Soon I hope but now I have to tackle the first round of edits, which I so dearly enjoy.

There were some who didn’t enjoy the turn the last book took but I only tell the story the way it wants to be told.  I know this sounds rather cliche but it’s the truth.  This book takes off from where the last one left off and, without giving any spoilers away, continues down the same path.  I will say that this one took off on its own like some of the others have.  What was meant to be only part of the book ended up filling the entire one.  So, that means that some of the story I meant to tell will have to be in the next one.  There’s your spoiler; yes, there is going to be another one.

It will be interesting to see what happens to the group next.  I mean in the next one after this.  It should prove to be interesting.  I am contemplating writing a companion book between this one and the next that will encompass the some of the stories of those bodies that Jack and the crew have run across.  I’m not sure about this as yet but they have a story to tell as well and it’s been tickling the few brain cells I have remaining.

Again, thank you for all of your support, kind message, and reviews.  I appreciate each and every one of them.  Receiving them truly does make my day.  I hope you have an awesome weekend.  I’ll just be here slowly going brain dead as I go through the edits.

 

John

Update Time

I suppose it’s time for an update on the next book, number nine.  I’m so good at blogging and keeping the web site up-to-date.  Yes, you can read facetious into that.  The writing on this one has been extremely slow, meaning, the words per day haven’t been all that spectacular.  So, late last night, I was actually rather surprised to see the word count at almost 74k.  I have absolutely no idea what that means in regards to when the book will be ready to publish, but hopefully soon.  Of course, it’s hard to write a story when most of the characters have perished.  You’d think that would make it easier but that’s just not the case.  Okay, I’m kidding, kind of, not really, maybe.

What’s the book title you ask?  Well, that is a very good question.  I had one in mind when I started but the story has, once again, left my control.  Parts that were to be included in this one will probably have to wait until the next book, yes, perhaps that’s a spoiler.  What that means though, is that I have no idea what this one will be called as yet.  I’m sure I’ll come up with something but right now the title is, A New World: F*#k It, I Have No Idea What to Call It.  Okay, either more or less caffeine is required.

So, in between wracking my brain for a title, I’ll be continuing on with jotting the occasional word down and hope some sense comes of it.  Eventually, the book will be finished or I’ll just throw a period down at the end of a random sentence and call it good.

I will admit that I’m a little disappointed with length that this particular episode has taken to write.  I had this killer cliff-hanger but, alas, it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to use it for the end of the book.  So disappointing.  Oh well, the story tells it like it wants to.  Of course, I’ll have to come up with something, maybe, and that really doesn’t bode well for the characters.  As a matter of fact, the characters all just turned over their shoulders and gave me a ‘WTF’ look.

Okay, it’s obvious that I’m in need of some medical attention.  So, I will leave you on this wonderful Tuesday evening and get back to the story.  As I mention is most every other post, I want to thank you all for your wonderful support.  You’re messages and reviews are both humbling and uplifting, so truly, thank you.  I hope you have an awesome evening and rest of your week!

John