Now that the release of Forged is over and the Reddit AMA is done, everything’s quiet again.
‘Quiet’ is a pretty good description of my working life in general. Every now and then I’ll have a book release or an AMA or some other event, but for the remaining 95% of the time I just stay at home and write. Some authors spend a lot of time on publicity work and conventions and tours and social media, but for various personal reasons I’m never been all that keen on those. For the most part, I write my books and do these weekly blog posts and that’s it.
Speaking of which, I’m still working away on Alex Verus #12. The good news is that, by my standard baseline, it’s 97% complete. The bad news is that in this case the baseline is wrong – it’s based on the assumption that the first draft will be 90,000 words long, which this one won’t be. I’ve just finished the first of the four final confrontations, and it’ll definitely take at least one full chapter more to do the last three. And after that I still need to do the epilogue. So 100,000 words is probably more accurate.
Still, I should be done by the end of the year. Exact publication date from there is going to depend on my editors/publishers, but if we’re lucky they’ll be able to get it out by the end of 2021. Fingers crossed!
Please don’t feel like you have to rush the ending. 🙂 Take your time and use as many words as necessary to “stick the landing” as the gymnastics phrase goes. You certainly did that with Forged. My new favorite book in the Alex Verus series.
We love long books so take your time and thanks for all the hard work.
Yay for long books! 🙂
I’m not an author, by any means. All the writing I’ve done is a couple of academic articles and a couple of (extremely minor) news reports that nobody will ever read.
But please do not feel that you need to overstuff the ending. There’s something to be said for letting stuff have the space it needs! Which obviously you know, you’re a massively successful published author, why do I think I need to tell you this? I’m going to stop now.
Um, looking forward to the book!
This is actually very good news! These books flow so well I usually end up tearing through them in a day or three. So – the longer the better Mr. Jacka.
As a recent introvert convert, I can appreciate that you don’t do a ton of publicity. These books are so great, though, I am surprised to learn many of my friends who are also fans of The Dresden Files, The Iron Druid Chronicles etc. have never heard of them.
I anxiously await the final installment, and am eager to hear more about what you think you will be doing next.
Take care.
With your books more words just equals more great fun. Can’t wait! 😀
Four final confrontations? That’s interesting, because I could only picture three final confrontations. Now you’ve given me something to ponder over in the year or so. It should be fun.