Hi all.  If you're still there, still following this site, hoping for new updates, new information, snippets, etc, I do greatly apologize for not posting more.  But I've just been so stinking busy lately.  TOO BUSY in fact.  Busy to the point of stupidly busy.  And that always cuts into my writing time.  In fact, it's been over 6 weeks since I've last had time to work on a manuscript and it's getting frustrating.  I want to get back into my writing just as much as you want to hear more about my stories, the characters, and so on.  So do I.  Being an author, I LOVE living in the worlds I create.  But, for some reason, life has a nasty habit of playing the knockout game with me, knocking me to the ground over and over again, no matter how many times I get up.  That doesn't mean I'm quitting at what I do.  I'll never do that short of death.

However, being an adult, and having to do adulty things, um, yeah.  It doesn't give you much time for anything else.  Especially of late.  Given all I've had to do lately, keeping up with just chores and things I'm responsible for is a 24/7 job lately, and that's wearing me out to the point that I'm in no condition to write when the times come for that.  I figure there will be a couple more weeks of this madness, and then I'll be able to get back to writing.  In fact, that probably won't be until the middle of November at the present rate.  Now, will that impact the release of "The White Mountains" like it did with "Gold Rush"?  Not really.  Unlike last time, the manuscript doesn't have the unbelievable list of problems that Gold Rush had that I kept working over and over and over again to finish.  In fact, this one is probably the cleanest of the four manuscripts so far.

Which, in and of itself, is kinda hilarious given that it follows one of the most difficult ones so far.  Evidently I got all my problems worked out on book 3 so there weren't any left over for book 4. ;)  So that will come out on the normal publishing schedule of Feb 1st for the biannual book release schedule that I like to follow.  I was originally going to speed things up to a two month publishing cycle for a while to get caught up and make up for the two publishing dates I missed trying to get Gold Rush fixed and to an acceptable level of quality.  However, life gave me a gigantic NOPE on that idea, and I also thought about things a bit and realized, if I did that, I'd be doing you a disservice, and creating more problems for myself than I wanted to deal with.  So, life getting in the way and stopping that idea worked out in everyone's favor. :)

Now, as for the status of The White Mountains, I've penciled it in for February 1st, 2020, or as close to that date as I can get it.  As for the manuscript quality, it's down to needing just one more pass through of editing and I think I can call it done.  So, Feb 1st is the target date, but if I consider it as being ready for release sooner than that, then I'll push it out the door sooner.  But, like any book of mine, it will NEVER go out the door until I'm fully satisfied with it, late or not.  Gold Rush should be a good testament to that.  Now, the other three books in the series, at this point book 5, Dark Wanderings, is done.  However, as I was getting into book six, I realized that there were things I needed to flesh out in book five to justify some of the things that I plan to do in book six that, if they're not in place in book five, it'll make things not work in six, or be utterly clumsy beyond words, and everyone hates that.

So, while the rough draft of the book is done, I'd consider the project as being about 30% complete at this point.  As such, even if book four gets released early, book five is still on target for August 2020.  Again, that's a target date, but I will do everything I can NOT to go over it.  I certainly don't want a repeat of Gold Rush in tardiness, but I also want to ensure it's quality is up to par.  So, again, I will do my best to hit that target date, and at the same time will give my all to bring you the best possible story I can.  As for rumors of a follow-on sequel series for Offworld Chronicles, they are completely true.  There will be one.  I'm just not sure what that'll be.  I think the chief reason I'm not sure what that'll be is because Offworld Chronicles isn't finished yet, so I'm not totally sure even where that story will go.  Only more writing will tell. :)

And okay, okay, I know you're sitting there chewing on your keyboard wanting me to hint a bit about what the story in book five is.  Some of that you will have to wait and find out, as the story isn't completely settled yet.  However, I can say this much.  They will be continuing their journey through The White Mountains, and will come up against several new enemies, one of which will carry on into book six for a ways.  All of them, though, the major ones anyways, will be very dangerous and life threatening to the team.  I'm also kicking around the idea of adding a sixth individual to the team, although that's not guaranteed as the core five members have proven to be sufficient so far.  And yet, at the same time, since (BIG SPOILER ALERT, TURN BACK IF YOU HAVEN'T READ "DRAGONS GAMBIT" YET!!!) the death of Alex at the hands of General Amaroth has left a bit of a void in the team that I've been looking at filling, but haven't, as yet, found an adequate individual to fill that position.  But, if I find one, I'll add them in.  And if not, I'll just leave the team with five members until the end.

And with that, I need to get to bed.  It's been a long day, I'm up again past my bedtime (which doesn't help things any with staying rested enough to keep up with everything) so I will cut it off here and then pick up another day.  Also, as one final little spoiler, I know I talked with some of you about doing a video series explaining various characters, story elements, etc in my various novels, and I still plan to do that, but it'll get done when I have more time.  Until then, it'll be just me trying to keep my proverbial head above water and getting book four finalized before February. :)  Anyhow, I'll try my best to keep you all up to date on how things are going as I'm able to.