My Projected Writing Schedule

The question I get asked most often is "what are you working on now?"  The second most asked question is "what are you working on next?"  I can totally understand the curiosity.  I'm always checking out the blogs of my favorite writers to see what they are up to and their upcoming releases.

I have also become increasingly aware of the fact that I have three different sets of fans:
1.  The fans who read only my zombie stuff
2.  The fans who read only my vampire stuff
3.  The fans who will read anything I write

I didn't realize this at first. But as time  goes on and fans express displeasure that I'm working on a book other than the one they were hoping I was writing, I have learned that sometimes the book I'm writing makes one fan cheer, while the other scowls.

In all honesty, I see myself as a horror writer.  I don't consider myself a vampire genre writer or a zombie genre writer exclusively.  I'm both of those and more.  I have so many ideas pouring into my head that at times it is a little overwhelming.  Before I was published by Tor I was able to just pick an idea and write it.  Now I have to consider my contractual obligations.

I recently made the decision to continue self-publishing my two vampire series (Pretty When She..., and Vampire Bride) for the time being.  Several factors played into this decision.

First and foremost is that there is already a fan base for both these series and the fans are clamoring for the next release. If I were to sell them to a publisher, this could mean delays of a year or more before the self-published book I have published now is re-released and another year or two for the next sequel to come out.  This is really hard for me to accept.  There was 11 months between the time when I pulled down the self-published versions of AS THE WORLD DIES and the release of the revised THE FIRST DAYS.  During that time I had email pouring into my inbox wondering what had happened to my books.  A lot of people were disappointed to find the originals were gone from circulation except for the second-hand copies.  I'd hate to put fans through that again.

Secondly, I have been working on the AS THE WORLD DIES zombie trilogy for the last 6 (almost 7) years.  The SIEGE revision was not as difficult as I feared, but the emotional fallout hit my like a runaway train.  Just after I hit send to my editor, I realized I was completely burned out on the trilogy.  The Vampire Bride series and Pretty When She...series are nearly as old (or older) than AS THE WORLD DIES.  The thought of going back into those already written, already published books to revise them yet again made me want to crawl into bed and hide.  I realized I couldn't bare to go back to old work.  I want to move forward to new stories.

I spoke to my agent and told her what I had decided and she enthusiastically agreed with me.  Though she loves the two vampire series, she agreed that setting them aside for now is the way to go.  I think she could hear it in my voice how much I want to write something new and fresh.  Maybe one day I'll sell the two vampire series, but for now I'm keeping them.

That being said, I recently pitched three book ideas to my editor.  We'll see if one of them gets snapped up once I submit the synopsis for each one.  All three are original works, not connected to anything else I've written.

Meanwhile, I have other books planned out.  The time frame is always subject to change if I end up with a contractual obligation and hard deadlines.  I just had to put aside my latest work to do the copyedits on SIEGE for example.

This is my tentative schedule right now.  I am trying to leave the early part of 2012 open just in case I will have a new novel to write for my editor.

Last Bastion of the Living (futuristic zombie novel) Projected writing period to finish the novel already in progress - November

Pretty When She Kills (vampires, necromancers, zombies in modern day Texas) Projected writing period December - January for a projected release date in March.

As The World Dies Untold Tales Volume 2 (featuring Ken & Lenore's story, Katarina's story, and unknown story)Projected writing period - Possibly end of November -- commissioning cover art now

As The World Dies Untold Tales Volume 3 (featuring Rune's story, the Senator's story, and unknown story) Projected writing period - March for a projected release date in May

Untitled third book in Vampire Bride Series - Projected writing period - June for a projected release date in September