Monthly Wrap Up
November Rewriting and Coaching
November has led to a great deal of learning and fun opportunities. I have way too many ideas of what to write next as we wrap up the editing and formatting for Council of Light. I’m grateful for all people in my life that have made it possible to reach this point in my writing life as an authorpreneur and a certified writing coach.
Council of Light Update
The novel is finally in the proofreading phase, with only a few expected tweaks for the final chapter to arrive this week. This book is topping out around 120K words, but that is because of added scenes and the far better character oriented ending. I am pleased with how it has polished into its final form with great help from beta readers and some good content editing.
Looking through the Light Series, all three books have very different feels for its fantasy. They also vary as Versont and Rhoanda traverse different phases of their lives. There are also some differences in my writing because I’ve grown in my skills while producing this series. However, they each standalone well as special parts over about two years of the characters’ lives. Nuances of backstory and the flow of their wider character arcs would be lost if read out of order.
Questions arise about the future of Karnum, but that leads to another series idea. The main characters of the Light Series are in positions they can’t run off to the front lines, but they can send others.
I’ve also had comments about favorite side characters and requests for stories about them. Yes, I have ideas for this as well. It will all take time, but I’m excited about what I’ll be writing in 2025. But I also have a novel around two-thirds of the way done that can start a historical series for Karnum.
I’m aiming for Council of Light to go on preorder by mid December with a release date in late January. I have not set an exact date, but it will be after the Hope*Story Conference I am attending. Look for updates as I prepare for ARC readers and a launch team.
Coaching
Getting this part of my authorpreneur business going is turning out slow, but promising. It’s probably best because my priority this year was to get the trilogy done first.
I have the blessing of helping a young writer and access to explore the Young Writers Workshop that she is enrolled in. This is definitely adding more work because I plan on diving into catching up on the academic path so I know fully what she has learned thus far, and what to expect after the holidays. We already had the fun of my first coaching homework aligning with an assignment she got the next week.
Heading into 2025, I have plans to share writing tips and answer questions with my writing communities in order to let others see what kind of coach and person I can be. At the Hope*Story conference I’ll be in the Coach’s Corner for one-on-one sessions. I’ll also have time to chat with people around everything going on. I also signed up to be a leader that will help a group of writers attending the conference get the most out of it.
My certification also links me to Hope*Books, which supplies two free one-hour coaching sessions to every author. I get paid by Hope*Books, but I know they have quite a few writers working through the process and have passed 40 books published in the past two years since they opened up the option.
This is the serial I planned on rolling out this year before I jumped into the opportunity to gain a coaching certification. I will roll it out in 2026. It’s already written and just needs editing and some tweaking. It will be at a level where I would love to have feedback on it.
Claude had no issues running into the fray as his spy network for hire goes places the Universal Alliance can’t go. However, he must confront the truth of his station and come to terms with a near death experience that turned him into a test subject for nanotechnology and more to keep him alive. He never asked for that.
Salindra nears the end of four years hiding out in derelict buildings of Goeken as a data analyst and spy. The Space Association finally tails Claude to her building, causing them to have to flee. She wasn’t ready to return to life behind a desk at the agency. Nor was she ready to handle an injured man that healed too fast.
While determining the extent of the Galactic Council’s use of mind-altering technology, they must fight a counter suit. They charge Claude because of his cybernetics that have gone beyond sanctioned test limits.
For fun I had ChatGPT produce an image of Claude. Mind you, if I were to turn this into a published novel, the first thing I would do is run to my cover designer and let them have at it. I’m all in for art by humans, but AI is fine for concepts.
This all leads me to wondering why my sci-fi and dystopian ideas are turning into serials while my fantasy is definitely heading into the beyond of book series.
Planning for 2025
This has proved daunting. January will be full of launching Council of Light and the Hope*Story Conference. I also have plans to dig further into the Young Writers Workshop to help the teenager I am coaching. I also have a few hours of RealmMakers conference videos I want to watch by the end of the year. It’s like I’m in clean up mode for 2024 amid fun new things.
Cyborg Claude is mostly written, but I have definite plans to change a few elements. I plan on having it come out weekly after the first three episodes are released together. It will take most of the year to release.
My next novel with be from the Karnum Archives and is called Last of Dragons. This novel is about two-thirds done with some great critique suggestions on the first few chapters. I’m not putting a date on when this one will be done, but I’ll be dropping updates of its progress. It also has a short story I need to edit as a teaser for the novel.
I look forward to sharing greater details about the Council of Light launch through December. There will be an extra post/newsletter this month to announce when it is on preorder and a request for ARC readers and launch team members.