Well, here we are at last, at the end of 2025, with 2026 looming on the horizon. I have to admit my mood this year is more one of relief than celebration. The stress of having to publish a book during the holiday season has left me feeling somewhat battered, to be honest, and I’m glad to have finally flung the proverbial One Ring into the fires of the equally proverbial Mount Doom.
Which brings us, of course, to this year’s main achievement: I finally published my third novel, Mysterious Ways, Sam Adams book three. I’m quite proud of how it turned out; I think I managed to keep things fresh, and it feels like the most polished writing I’ve managed thus far. (It’s also my longest novel, by over two thousand words.)
As I’ve discussed elsewhere, this book was a struggle. The nastiest bout of writer’s block I’ve ever had left me completely steamrolled and conspired to destroy my progress. I set a deadline for myself to have it out in 2025, thinking it would be out in the summer. Instead, I just barely squeaked by, the book hitting stores only yesterday. As a result, Mysterious Ways has been unleashed on the public with less fanfare that I would have preferred, but that’s okay: maybe it wasn’t sound business sense, but I definitely prefer to stick to the plan and get the book out on schedule, rather than doing a splashier, but late, release.
In this year’s other top story, I officially joined the Before We Go Blog team; Before We Go Blog has supported me since I was just starting out, and I’m thrilled to join their crew. I’ve written several comic book reviews for them, and interviewed Jim Zub, writer of the ongoing (and terrific!) Conan the Barbarian series. I’ve been on a review hiatus lately, thanks to too many demands on my time, but I’ll get back to it after the New Year. I had a great time doing book signings with my friends at Bazoo Books, and I’ve already got another one lined up for January. I also faced down the moment every writer dreads, when I read a selection from Credible Threats aloud at a local open mic event.
Of course, all this is old news; if you’re anything like me, you want the scoop on what’s coming up next.
The truth is, I’m not entirely sure what 2026 will look like.
It will undoubtedly be busy: I did manage to work on some new stuff this year, but I’ve also been frequently interrupted by the various tasks I needed to do to get Mysterious Ways ready for publication. With the book finally in the can, I can set that aside, and devote all my energy to writing, and I fully intended to dive into it with enthusiasm.
That’s where it gets a little fuzzy: I am (perhaps unwisely) planning to juggle two WIPs, alternating between them like I used to do in the bygone days before I published my first novel and didn’t have to worry about scheduling. I’m hoping that will ultimately make me more efficient in writing both of them.
So what are they?
One of them is something brand new, a book I’ve teased before several times, in interviews and on social media, but if you’re just joining us, it’s called The Shattered Crown, and it’s the first book in The Voice in the Mist, an epic fantasy trilogy that I’ve been planning to write for almost a decade now. It’s more than a little surreal (and nerve-wracking) to see it finally move towards becoming a reality. It’ll be the first non-Sam Adams book the public has seen from me, and I’m both excited and nervous to see how they’ll react. I’ve already got the amazing Jeff Brown working on the cover, and while you won’t get to see it for a while, I’ve already gotten the tiniest peek at what he’s cooking up, and even that much looks incredible. As of this writing, I’ve got just over 87,000 words cobbled together from various drafts, and soon I’ll dive back in and start making some serious progress. It’ll be a mammoth undertaking, juggling seven POV characters over several hundred pages, requiring lots of worldbuilding, a map, a dramatis personae… I’m exhausted just thinking about it.
But not to worry, all that Shattered Crown business won’t stop me from working on my other WIP, which is, of course, Sam Adams book four. The Sam Adams books have cultivated a small, but loyal fanbase over the years, and I don’t want to let them down.
Now, I freely admit, this one has a ways to go. It would have been nice to have racked up a higher word count by now, but between book launch stuff and the usual plot snarls, I still have most of the book left to write.
Nevertheless, that’s most likely what I’ll work on next, and I fully expect to see that word count start creeping upwards once again. It’s called Death Follows, and if I can stick the landing, I think both I and my readers will be very excited about the result. This book will serve as something of an unofficial finale to the early part of the series; there will be huge revelations and dramatic returns, and we’ll pay off many of the story threads we’ve been setting up as far back as book one. And prepare to hate me, because this will be the first book in the series to end on a cliffhanger. All I can tell you is, I’ll dive into book five as soon as I can.
The bad news I’ve been talking around is that I’m not sure when either of those books are going to be published. My six months of writer’s block on Mysterious Ways is still making trouble, causing everything else to be behind schedule. I would have liked to release at least one of them in 2026, but I’m not sure that will be feasible now. While I won’t completely rule out a novel next year, we’ll have to manage our expectations, and 2027 is, alas, probably a more realistic estimate.
So, that’s where things stand at the end of 2025, a tough, but ultimately successful year.
Thank you so much to everyone who’s supported me this past year. I can’t wait for you to see what I’ve got in store next. Onward!