Super Swell Updates on Current and Future Projects

Greetings, lovely readers!

So, here's the deal. I haven't published anything since May of last year, and I'm currently between projects for a heartbeat or two, so I thought it would be a good time to give you an update on everything I've got cooking for you on the old writer's stove.

First off, I just finished the third draft of my latest novel on June 28, and I'm very happy with it. Saying that does it no justice. I cannot actually put into words how happy and proud I am over this novel. I may be entering it in a contest next month that would require a degree of anonymity, so for now I can't say anything else about it. You'll find it listed as "Title TBA" on the "Current Projects" page at www.GlennSladeClarkJr.com if you want to follow its progress. It could be a while before you see this one, because if it doesn't win the contest, I plan to submit it around for a bit next year. I will only indie publish this one if everyone else rejects it, which would be fine. I would actually love to indie publish it, due to its nature, but I am determined, if possible, to connect it with a mainstream publisher, due to its message. I want as many people to be able to trip over this book unexpectedly as possible. Once I have the word on this first contest though, I should at least be able to reveal the title.

But for now, on to the future ...

The Legends of Nod

Cover layout not final

Now that I'm able to step away from my secret novel, the next project I'm going to give top priority is releasing the expanded editions of my fantasy series The Legends of Nod.

I thought, way back in 2007 when I wrote "The Dragons of Nod," that this was a series of short stories. But they just kept running longer, until the fourth one, "The Mech Valley Debacle," was novel-length and had to be cut into two parts to fit the existing format.

Now I see pretty clearly that this is not a short fiction series, it is an epic series of novels that I am absolutely nuts to try to pull off on my own. There were going to be 130 short stories, later collected into twelve books. Now ... there are going to be 130 novels. I'm planning to publish at least five a year once the new format gets rolling, so it is possible to get it done in a modern human lifetime ... but don't worry; I do have extensive notes to leave behind for a future writer if for some reason I don't make it; perhaps even if I do. (There will always be more story to tell in the world of Nod, but my part of its telling ends with book CXXX.) 😉

All four expanded editions will be published in hardback, paperback, and e-book formats, on the same day, hopefully in the fourth quarter of this year. #1-3 of the original numbering will be published as Books I, II, and III, and #4-5 will be collected into Book IV.

All four books will include a new "Dramatis Personae" section to help readers keep up with characters as the series progresses. Book I will have a timeline of key events in the history of Nod in the back. Books II, III, and IV will also have a "What Has Gone Before" section at the front, to offer reminders of moments in the story thus far that will be crucial to keep in mind when reading the book in hand. I was going to put maps in the books, but realized that maintaining the maps would be a nightmare over 130 volumes and that, at least in these first four, they would add nothing to a reader's ability to comprehend the narrative. I may do maps on the website at some point, for readers who simply enjoy seeing a visual representation of the world they're reading about, and if ever a volume's narrative would be genuinely aided by a map in the future, one will surely be included in that particular book.

Where we are now: Book I is currently in the formatting phase, with Book II to follow immediately thereafter, while Books III and IV are awaiting brand-new cover art by Molly Fine that we will hopefully have in hand before the end of the summer.

Morality Play

It's been a while since 2003, and I'm feeling overdue for a new collection of my short fiction. Morality Play will collect eleven of the short story e-books that were published between 1999 and 2017, and it will include at least one original work, maybe a few more. We'll see what my gut says when I start writing the new stories, which will be as soon as I have the Nod books pretty much on their way as far as tweaking the prose is concerned. The stories not to be included in this volume are only being left out because I feel they are thematically better suited to other future collections.

I would love it if this came out by the end of the year, but there are too many x-factors at this point to say for sure. It really depends on how fast I can write the new material and on how fast The Legends of Nod moves through production, but it's probably a safe bet to expect this one out no later than the middle of next year.

A Wayward Path:

Shadow of the Werewolf

I have literally been working on this sequel to Cry, Wolf: Shadow of the Werewolf off and on for about twenty years. The problem that has led to almost  all of the "offs" is that it is extremely difficult to connect with a character who I last left in such a dark place. There are times in my life when I just can't. But I feel like Daniel (the werewolf whose shadow it is) and I are really communicating recently. We really know where we're going long-term with this series now, what the endgame is really all about for him, and we're both very much up for going there.

Where we are now: I've got 28,397 words written in this manuscript so far, and it will be my next main focus after the new material for Morality Play. I have no doubt that I will finish this novel before the end of this year, and it will then, at long last, be published next year, just in time for the twentieth anniversary of both Cry, Wolf and my publishing career itself.

The Thing in the Attic:

An Anderson Bros. Paranormal Investigation

So, I wrote this "short story" back in 2016 ... and it turned into a novella. It worked amazingly well for me and the characters as a short story, structurally, but not so much as a book. As a short story, it had been intended as a sort of prelude to a new series of novels, but I realized that, as a novel it was only half  a story. So, I'm taking some notes for future books and reworking things to put together the rest of this book.

What it is: If you've read a lot of my horror fiction, you may be familiar with Luke Anderson, the little boy from "Night Light," and his brother Jasper, a re-incarnated character from "Night Light II." Since appearing in those stories, they have slowly crept into the background of the Nightfire universe as young adults with a YouTube channel dedicated to investigating the mysteries of the paranormal. This was first mentioned in "Scarecrow," then they appeared in "Dario Jung and the GPS from Hell" and "Mommy Doesn't See Me."

Their presence organically grew into a larger idea for me, and I am thrilled about working with the Anderson Bros. and Dario Jung in a series of novels dedicated to their mission to shine a light in the darkness! The first books will take place when Luke and Dario are still in high school and eventually catch up to their later short fiction appearances.

Where we are now: As mentioned, I have a novella right now that is sitting at 19,943 words. I'm going to give expanding this book my all after I finish A Wayward Path. I expect to have it finished by early next year. As for publication, however, I'm going to give submissions a shot for a year or so before I move to indie publishing this one. Impatient as I am to publish this myself, I see a certain marketability to this series that may be better carried out by a bigger publisher, so I'm going to see if anyone out there agrees with me before selling myself short. If no one wants it, I will happily indie publish it as soon as I get the bad word!

But if you're dying for more Anderson Bros. goodness, fear not! For after I finish this novel, I'm shifting my focus immediately to ...

Night Light III:

Ooga Booga's Holiday Hoedown

I never thought there would be a "Night Light II," and when we got there I never thought there would be a III. Both Night Light stories seemed like the end of the story to me, but here we are, and part III is the real end of the story of this closet monster and the little boy who refused to be dead.

This one picks up twelve years later, when Luke is a teenager and already investigating the paranormal on YouTube with his younger brother. While the Anderson Bros. spin-off series will go on long after this episode, I really, really feel like "Night Light III" will serve as a satisfying conclusion to this particular phase of their lives.

Where we are now: I have 958 words down in manuscript form at present, and that's just the first scene. The outline is so extensive that I have every suspicion this one will run long. If it does in fact turn out to be a short story, I will publish it, probably next year or in 2020 as an e-book. If it runs long, I'll skip the solo e-book release and jump to the next step, which is to collect all three stories into a single novel, which I'm calling Night Lights and Nightmares. Either way, you will be getting this third story and this eventual triune collection in the next year or two.

Other Priorities for 2019 and 2020

Beyond those first five projects, I can't say much about the specific order that I'm going to get to other things, but I can tell you that both The Chronicles of Nightfire, Texas and Metrognomes are going to be priorities in the next couple of years. Both in 2019, if I can get to them both that soon.

The next Nightfire novel will be titled The Chronicles of Nightfire, Texas, Volume III: White Devils, and it will deal with the escalation of racial tensions in Nightfire after Valen Alexas announces that he will be tearing down the old slave quarters on his estate. In 1976, some of the town's citizens see it as desecrating a landmark, while others see it as either high time it was done or too little, too late. And of course there will be plenty of vampire and demon drama to make things worse for everybody ... because Nightfire.

And getting back to Metrognomes, I have 580 words written so far on a short story called "Metrognomes: The Darkgnome," and I will get back to that when I get back to Metrognomes in general. I'm going to write several pieces of short fiction to go along with the second novel in the main series, much as I did with the two short stories that preceded Metrognomes: The Shaman's Apprenice. If they run long, like The Demons of the Blood did, then they will be published in the Metrognomes Advenrture series of books, just as that one was. As for the main series of books, the next one, as anyone who read Book I knows, will be titled Metrognomes: Aradia's Wand, and I am so excited to get to work on this one, especially with Molly back on board to do the illustrations!

The holdup now is that Molly and I have to coordinate our schedules for about six months to get it done, and we really want to do it the way we did the first, where I'm writing from the outline while she's illustrating from the outline, and we share what we've got as we go. It's an awesome way to write a novel! I had so much fun working with her in this way on the first one. Molly is really best able to work during the first three quarters of the year due to her standard end-of-year music gigs, so if I don't have six straight months blocked off next year before October, after I finish "Night Light III," we will have to push it to 2020. Either way, we are closer to Aradia's Wand (and more) than we've ever been!

Once I've got all of my established series back on track, I'm going to keep on them, returning to them each in turn until they are finished. Nod will obviously have to remain a high priority if I am to get five books out a year, but the others will be revisited on a regular rotation from here on out.

I've started telling a lot of stories over the years. Now, as we approach my twentieth anniversary as a writer, it is high time I got to finishing some of them.

And once I've wrapped things up with these old friends, there are plenty of new stories in my head that I am just as eager to start telling.