Happy New Year and Other Stuff!

Well, here we are…

It’s freaking 2026! That just seems insane to me. I could have sworn 2025 had just started. I have to say I don’t enjoy how fast a year flies by as I get older. For those of us of a certain age or older, remember when it took us the first four months of the year to stop writing the last year on checks? The kids these days will never know how hard it was for us.

Anyway, 2025 was an insane year for my little writing business. I released two books and spent more time learning about editing, self-publishing, and book marketing than I care to admit. After the first book, which took me eighteen months to complete, I released the second from start to finish in six months. That felt really good.

Well, here we are starting a whole new year, and I have goals for it. Lots of goals! I plan to release two books in the Humanity Shattered series this year. I already have the third book, with the working title "Demeter-9," started. I have a solid outline I like and have begun laying out the opening chapters. I got a great start on it right before Christmas, and had really wanted to do a ton of writing over the few days I took off, but ended up getting caught up in the Holiday spirit. Now, I have to get back on track in my writing. I also have a straw-man outline for book four in Humanity Shattered. That is very subject to change as I continue down the path of book three, but it does feel nice to have a path laid out.

I have also been chipping away at the other writing project that I mentioned last month, I think… Anyway, it falls in the high fantasy genre. I have spent some free moments here and there making sure I get the ideas and concepts that are swirling around in my head out on “paper.” After reading a ton of books on fantasy writing, I have been using a great resource to build out this world. T.M. Holladay has a workbook titled The Only World Building Workbook You’ll Ever Need. He may be right about that! It’s pretty cool. It has really helped me lay the groundwork for my high-fantasy world. This is all a stretch goal for me right now, as Humanity Shattered is my priority. It helps me to step away from things from time to time so I don’t get burned out.

What is my plan for this high fantasy writing project? I dunno right now. I want to develop a world and set a story in it. I envision that story as a series arc across a few books. Beyond that, I just don’t know. Part of me wants to write the first three books before I ever release anything, and part of me thinks that is just insane to write something and keep it on the shelf until it is ready to release as a series. Anyway, I am not putting that much time into it right now. More just scratching an itch from time to time and documenting the effort.

Oh, I almost forgot. TRESSELL 113’s audible version is well underway. I was able to listen to and approve a portion of the effort over the last few days. It sounds great, can’t wait for it to be finished for release. Hopefully, that will happen at the end of January or the beginning of February.

So, I will keep you updated as we walk through the year!

Shamon