What Comes Next? · 1:13am Nov 1st, 2023
Whew! A half-million word novel is no joke folks... Especially when it isn't even your first extremely-long-form-got-away-from-me-Gryphons-rarely-do-anything-small escapade.
They say no plan ever fully survives first contact with the real world, but to fail to plan is to plan to fail. Plans are clay to work with as the situation evolves.
So here is mine, currently:
First, I again want to shout-out Keystone Gray, and The Campaigner.
For anyone who has missed the big flashing 'good times continue here!' sign in the epilogue of Advocate, and the comments, The Campaigner is where all the action is now. If you liked Advocate, you're going to love Campaigner. Key and I have been collaborating for some time, on both stories, and more. And he is a truly excellent author. I've seen a huge chunk of the book, and I can promise you; You don't want to miss it.
Next order of business. I need a break. Probably not long, a couple of weeks or so... But that doesn't mean the taps of any of my stories will be turning back on that soon. After a break, I want some time to get my head re-wrapped around Hegira, and to finish the third book, for anyone who still is interested in seeing where that goes.
I'll want to build myself up some padding before I start releasing, probably on a weekly cadence.
Sometime during that process, I will also be working on two other projects. Slowly at first, then with much more vigor as Hegira ends. Two other Optimalverse Advocate-related projects.
The first is intended to be (in keeping with the Meyers/Briggs Personality Type naming theme) 'The Logician,' and will be Hanna's personal chronicle of the events leading up to Celestia's creation, and through to her own upload.
Frightening stuff, considering that most authors revere Hanna as a figure to be handled as little as possible, for the most part. And I intend to go full cannon-compatible, but deep-dive. Explore some new horizons. Tease out all the subtext and missing details that fill in the large, and tantalizing blanks left in the original FiO.
Even more frightening for me, because it is doubly hard for me to write stories that do not feature Gryphons. But I'm going, I think, to give it a shot. Because I think I have a real humdinger of an idea, and it is asking very loudly to get out onto the page. Soon it might start asking with a little more urgent verve.
Call me crazy. Hopefully you're right. I'd consider it a compliment, and a relief.
The second project, still mostly under wraps for now, will hopefully be a major co-authored collaborative story with Key, that follows up on the continuity of Logician/Advocate/Heaven's Not Enough/Campaigner. I can hardly wait for that one, and have been giddy with excitement since Key and I first broached the idea.
So that's the plan. Hold me to it, but not strictly. I also work a day job as a programmer, and effectively run a small farm to-boot, with many DIY projects, and a 1,700lb draft horse, and perhaps another horse on the way because can you ever have just one?
Questions? Comments? Interjections? I'm here for 'em.
Throughout the entire story of "The Lawyer" I was worried about only one question. For all AIs in history, their inventions were intermediate steps to achieve a goal. So what is the likelihood that a third AI would emerge whose purpose was solely to invent for humans, thereby preventing the scenario of nuclear war?