The past year or so has been a busy one, for a few reasons (not insignificant among them being my graduation from college), and my writing has gone in some pretty drastic spurts. I’ve recently been in the midst of a big push, after spending a couple months off while reading far too much. The result is that I’ve got some pretty big plans for the next year or so, and even beyond that.

The first big news is that Seeds of Doubt has now been changed to All Flames Cast as the working title for the first Burning Shadows book. While Seeds of Doubt is a great title for describing the actual goings on in the book, I have never really liked it; I think it’s too cliché. So, All Flames Cast is what I’m going with for the time being. I’ve been at work on this one for about a year and a half now, and I’m nearing completion on the first draft. I will be posting another chapter or two on here in the coming days, to continue the first three that I posted about a year ago.

Now, Burning Shadows is a big project for me. I’m looking at three books in this world, though not altogether in a chronological trilogy. All Flames Cast is going to kick it off, with the story mostly centered on three characters in the Letaalese Empire: Tymun, a soldier; Harael, a priest of the Pirin faith; and Eritan, the emperor himself. This first book will be all about the relationship between the Faith and the Empire, and how without the strength of one, both can fall. This book is all about results.

The second book, with the current title Of Genesis, is from a totally different perspective: a man from a Letaalese colony discovers the root forces in the world, and he sets in motion large scale events. This book is all about the causes of the results in All Flames Cast, and takes place more or less at the same time. The third book, The Faithful, details the aftermath of both of these books. Of Genesis is probably a couple years down the road for me, as I’ll need to finish and revise All Flames Cast over the next year.

Other than this big one, I have a few other projects in the works. The first, which will take priority after I finish the first draft of All Flames Cast, is finishing the manuscript for Dreamscape. This shouldn’t take long, as I’ve already written a very big chunk of this book. It’s all about regaining momentum on it and just finishing the sucker off. It’s been a long time coming.

After that, I’ve got a standalone epic fantasy novel tentatively titled The Four Shades. This is a book about four notorious mercenaries with unique magical abilities. They live in a world where the blind can see into an alternate “spirit realm”, but they each have bonded with spirits, allowing them to gain powers unheard of by the rest of humanity. The Blind World, as it is known, will come into spectacular conflict with the real world, and the Four Shades are at the center of it all. Expect this book to get under way near the end of next year.

Down the road from there, I’ve got two more epic fantasy series: a duology titled The Six that details the struggles of six gods and goddesses and their minions, and a big, whopping, four-book series called The Coffin Arches. Coffin Arches is last on the list, because I have the most ambitious plans for it, and would really like to do the thing justice. I need to know I’m ready to tackle this monster, from a writing standpoint, before I get in over my head. Coffin Arches is about three worlds connected by hidden portals, the various powers on each, and the three inscrutable, immortal brothers who have dominion over each world. This series is going to have a LOT going on in it, and I simply don’t have the skill to pull it off right now. Look for this one to get under way after I’ve finished off the Burning Shadows trilogy.

On the side of all of this, of course, I’ll keep writing short fiction when the mood strikes, though it’s a secondary goal right now. I’m glad that so many people have been keeping up with what I’ve been writing and posting on here, and I hope you all stick around to see the fun things coming along!