And we’re back. My apologies for missing last week; Clockwork Alchemy consumed the entire weekend, but in a good way. There’ll be a few photos after the cut, along with two other things of note. Before that, I do want to answer a comment left by H on Saturday in a bit more detail. They asked what the latest news was on the seventh Monkey Queen book.
Hopefully, it’ll be late this year. Part of the delay is due to my not being completely happy with the story I had planned for the seventh book. At this point, I need to either figure out how best to rework what’s been written, or scrap it and start over. I know where the overall storyline is going after that; I just need to get it to that point.
Another part is real life getting in the way. Getting the Monkey Queen books ready for print after they’re written requires covers and formatting. That has taken money and time, and though I may be looking into steps to cut those costs, it’s not like with the Peavley Manor and Skyblade Saga stories, where I’ve had help (thank you, Shei and Amber!). Also, Willow has been busy for most of the last year, both with her Yokai art book and her real life things. (She did pass the review and earn her Ph.D last year, and was immediately hired for a teaching and research position, all of which has eaten up a lot of her time.) I don’t want to ask her to commit time to do a cover until I know what the story is going to be.
And other writing projects have also come up. Skyblade’s Gambit took some writing time, and I still need to finish up Skyblade’s Claim for a release later this month. The Peavley Manor short stories begged to be written and were fun to do (and helped me get out of my writing lull). And I have another project, a steampunk/fantasy thing, that I want to finish by September. After that, I can take a long look at Michiko and Beth and try to get book seven going. But it will, sooner or later, get done!
More stuff after the cut! (WARNING: Lots of photos, may take a minute or three to load.)