Shadow of an Empire Alpha Nearly Done · 5:09pm Jul 8th, 2016
Just a quick update, since I've been so quiet this week. The reason is simple: Shadow of an Empire is in its final three chapters. Which is a fancy way of saying I've got two more chapters to write after I finish the current one, plus maybe a final bit of closure, and then the alpha 1 of Shadow will be done!
Which means ... next week, hopefully. Barring any surprises. Final stats right now? It looks like it will weigh in at 230,000 or so words. Though given that I'm about to write a bunch of finale scenes, it might push itself to 240,000. Maybe. I'd guess that 230,000 words is a much closer bet for this draft. Sadly this took me, counting July, five months to write. The perils of having a second job, I suppose.
Anyway, the first alpha draft is nearly done. And once it is ... I step away for a second, and while I let my brain disengage from it before I begin editing, I'm throwing myself into finishing up Colony. That truly massive Sci-Fi title I finished the first of draft over a year ago.
Yeah, that's right. Currently, it's in Alpha 2. Once Shadow of an Empire is in Alpha 1 status, all my writing work is going towards moving Colony from Alpha 2 to Beta 1. Then Beta 2. Then Beta 3. And after that ... publication.
Yes, you heard that right. Colony is at last coming out. That's the next big project. Colony publication. The 1300 page tome is finally coming, guys!
Oh, and one last bit of news. City of Doors posted reviews for all three of my published books—One Drink, Dead Silver, and Unusual Events—finding all of them well worth the time reading. They had quite a bit of praise to deliver all three as a whole, but my favorite quip had to be concerning Unusual Events, which they declared "... a damn good collection of stories that is certainly worth both the price and the time it takes to read through it."
Good praise any author would like to hear.
Hooray for critical acclaim!
And for being close to being feature-complete on another book.