October is here, the temperatures are almost down to something resembling not-awful here in the south, and I’ve been getting some writing done.
My wife is still going through cancer treatment, so that’s a big impact on my life, as well. I’ll admit the stress from that and everything has slowed down my writing process quite a bit. Thankfully she’s doing really well and things are looking good.
The other good news is that I’ve finished two novels (yay!) this past month of the eleven novels I have in progress (boo!). It feels great to clear two projects off my desk, as both of them have been things I’ve worked on for a year or more. In the case of one, it is a setting that I’ve been meaning to write in for over 25 years, in the other, well, I’ve had various drafts for fifteen years or more.
I’m submitting both of them to publishers, so it will likely be a bit before they come out to you all. In other good news, though, I’m making great progress on the next Star Portal universe novel, which will be the sequel to Shadows of Valor. I hope to have it done this month and (hopefully) published in early November.
Next on the queue is the 5th Eoriel Saga book which has been trapped in limbo for too long. Once I finish that book, I’ll have completed 4 books in 2 months bringing my works in progress from 11 down to… 13. Somehow getting more done means I have more in the queue.
I’ve got a very aggressive writing plan for the next few months, because who really needs sleep, anyway, amirite?
Anyway, that’s all for now, thank you all for reading and thanks for your patience. Here’s to hoping I have book announcements and trailers for you all soon!
If you hadn’t seen it, Three Ravens Publishing released my superhero novel, Get Wreckt, last month. It was a fantastically fun novel to write and the reader feedback has been great, so check it out.
Current projects on deck… well, I’ve got nine works in progress, several of them at 80,000 words or more which is nearing completion. My hope this month is to complete 2-3 of those projects and get them out to my beta readers.
I have a new cover for Shadows of Valor, one that I think fits the overall series much better. If you haven’t read Shadows of Valor and you *are* reading the Children of Valor series, you might want to pick it up as the next book I have planned for release in the series is Spectres of Valor, the sequel to Shadows of Valor, and then shortly after that the tenth Valor’s Child book, Valor’s Liberation. Minor hint, they’ll have some crossover, so you might want to read up to find out what’s been going on on Century while Jiden and others have been offworld. Shadows of Valor picks up after the events of Valor’s Stand, the 5th book of the Children of Valor series.
Both books should be coming this fall, as long as everything lines up.
One of the projects nearing completion is the next Eoriel Saga book, which I hope to have out soon as well.
Additionally, this weekend 11-13 July 2025 I’ll be at Congregate in Winston-Salem, NC. I’ll have a vendor table there for my books, though I’m not currently scheduled for any panels but I may fill in if they have any openings. Timothy Zahn and Michael Stackpole are both guests there, along with Jacob and HP Holo, and others. So it looks to be a fun convention. If you’re in NC, I recommend attending!
Additionally, as many of you probably know, I’ve moved my professional writing advice over to my substack. If you want to read either, you should take a look.
I’ve also been a bit more active on my YouTube channel, primarily with gaming posts, so if you’re into painting miniatures/tabletop gaming, feel free to check that out.
For everyone, thank you for your patience as well as I haven’t been as productive as I’d like while my wife goes through her cancer treatments. My focus has been on her health, which has to mean everything else has taken a back seat for the time being, though as you can see, I’m still working on multiple projects as much as I can.
Hey everyone, as the year winds down, I wanted to do a quick review of what I wrote, what I published, and what I’ve been through for the year.
I released four books this year: Sorcerers of the Black Fortress, Common Valor, Valor’s Strike, and Forsworn Valor. All told, around 460,000 words published, or around 1,500 pages.
I wrote seven novels and a short story this year (along with some progress on other stuff that’s not yet finished), with a total word count of 685,000 words, or around 3,500 pages. It was a very productive year for me, and I’m happy with what I managed, though I think I can do better.
I hit a personal milestone of having 40 books published by the time I turned 40, which feels like quite the accomplishment to me, though I am sure there are people out there saying “Those are rookie numbers, gotta bump those numbers up!”
I have three novels that I’ve finished this year and not yet released, two of them will be out in the first few months of the new year, and the third, under contract, should be out in the first quarter of the new year.
My regular readers may have noticed a pause in releases and in blog posts. We bought a house and moved into it during spring of 2023. That was the second move in two years, my 27th or 28th move as an adult (I have sort of lost count, not enough fingers and toes). It’s certainly not as bad as years where we’ve moved three times in one year, but it definitely impacts my writing (and my mental health, but that’s a discussion for another day).
Part of the pause was also from a desire to get some breathing space as far as having books ready to go, including covers, editing, and all the rest. Indie publishing can be a bit like a treadmill, with the need for releases, and having those books ready to go three to four months out does wonders for my mindset as far as writing. I know when a book is ready to go, where it falls in any given series, and what comes next for my writing order. That means I’m not constantly stressing myself out as far as getting books done on time (and consequently, falling further behind).
My goal is to keep that breathing space, which also allows me some time to work on multiple projects, ideally knocking out 2-3 books on any given series before switching over to a different one. So far it is working, though I have to be ever mindful of the advancing pace of time.
In my day job, I’ve been promoted, which brings with it added responsibilities, more stress, longer hours, countered by more pay and ideally the ability to have more impact. I have jokingly said before, I don’t have a military career, I am just really into method writing. Ha. Haha.
For those who follow my YouTube channel, that is an accomplishment in itself, with me foraying into the world of visual/audio media. I have some ideas and plans for the future, time is the main limiting factor there, because time I spend filming, editing, and working on that is time I am not spending with my family, writing, or working the day job.
As 2023 closes out, I have a roof over my head, my family is fed, and I am grateful for those things. I hope that all those reading this can say the same. I am grateful for the writing I’ve managed and for ideas and inspiration that I carry into the new year.
Hey everyone. Late post, but I’m headed to Life, the Universe, and Everything writers convention in Provo, Utah. I’ll be a panelist again this year. See below for my schedule.
The King of the Battle Field: An Introduction to Artillery
2PM · THURSDAY · BRYCE
Worldbuilding
Panel
How to Usurp a Kingdom
9AM · FRIDAY · ARCHES
Worldbuilding
Panel
When Life Isn’t Organic: Alternatives to Organic Chemistry for Life and Material Science
Hey everyone. I’m back online after a bit of a hiatus. I’m finally coming out from under a lot of the “stuff” happening in life, and thank goodness for that. As a result, I’m writing again and I hope to be posting a bit more regularly here in 2020.
So what’s on my horizon? Honestly, digging into all the writing projects is at the top of the list. I have several WIPs that I need to get edited and hopefully get out in the next couple of months, some that may be ready as early as the end of January or early February. My goal is not to rush things, though, I want to try to keep the quality of writing solid.
I’ve got two finished novels, both headed to publishers as soon as I can do the edits. I have an outline for the next Forsaken Valor book and I’m outlining the follow-on series, (tentatively titled War of Valor). The fourth book of the Eoriel Saga is around 50% completion. I have outlines for Renegades IV, Shadow Space Chronicles VII, and several other book series that have been on the backburner for a while now. My goal is to hit 30 published novels by the end of the year.
I’m thinking 2020 is going to be a busy year. Hopefully it will be a good one as well. That’s all for now and thanks for reading!
Hey everyone, here’s my AAR for LTUE 2019! All in all, I had a great time and had the opportunities to both participate and observe some awesome panels on writing, art, book marketing, and more. If you’re in the Western US, LTUE has got to be one of the better writing conventions you can attend.
There’s a lot of fantastic authors to meet, and enough information on just about any topic to not only help new authors, but to help experienced authors learn new things.
The people are friendly, the locale is awesome (Provo, Utah has some very scenic mountains), and it’s a great opportunity to network.
Most of my panels for the weekend were in the military science fiction theme, with panels on Rules of Engagement, Drones & Robots in Warfare, Rebellions & Revolutions, and two panels on Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers.
I dragooned James Young into several of those panels, because a couple panelists weren’t able to show. (Sorry James, there’s consequences for heckling from the crowd when I know who you are). The ROE panel was fun, especially with Jim Curtis, Lee Modesitt, we got to cover a lot of history of ROE and do some extrapolation of what it might look like in the future. For the Rebellions & Revolution panel, Jim Curtis and James Young’s knowledge of history meant that there were a lot of people in the audience taking notes to go look things up.
I really enjoyed the Drones & Robots in Warfare panel, with Jim Curtis & Larry Correia. We ranged a bit further off topic into the areas of cyberwarfare, but that’s easy to understand given the topic. It was particularly amusing to have people from the audience commenting afterwards about how scary all the potential is… that’s good writing ideas there!
As far as panels I attended, the panels on Surgery in Zero G was fantastic, with a lot of neat medical issues in microgravity being described by the panelists. Doctor Nik Rao’s panel on Evolutionary Biology was awesome, especially as to how it relates to alien life we may encounter (or at least write about).
There were a few faces I wish I’d been able to see at the convention, people whose schedules didn’t line up or who didn’t get invited this year as panelists. I really hope they get that latter part straightened out, as I felt there was a bit more emphasis on filling panels with people, rather than getting panelists who both show up and who are qualified. But all in all, it was a fun convention and I hope to attend next year as well.
Hey everyone! As the year winds to a close, I thought I’d write a bit about what I’ve done and the obvious follow up to that is where I’m going next. In 2018 I had five published novels, which is what I also managed in 2017. My goal was higher, but I had a few things happen earlier this year, so I think getting those five out was good. Two of those novels were in my Children of Valor series, with the third one being the start of the spin-off Forsaken Valor series. The other two, Dead Train: All Aboard and The Colchis Job were both the starts of new series.
Writing-wise, I completed five novels, for a total of four hundred and fifty thousand words written. Which is a lot of writing. As the year winds to a close, I’m close to finishing another book, too, and prepping to start the next one.
I’ve also just approved the audiobook version of Valor’s Child and signed the contract to start the next one.
The year 2018 has brought some difficulties for my family, with multiple surgeries, the passing away of family, and a lot of stress and strain. I’m very grateful to my readers and I want to thank all of you for reading and enjoying my books. I’ve got a lot more of them planned, so as long as you keep reading, I’ll keep writing.
A while back, I was riding in a pickup truck. This is notable only for the fact that the girl driving it was consistently using about three feet of the right lane while driving in the left. As a passenger, I found that pretty terrifying and said something to the effect of “Jesus, what the hell are you doing?”
She insisted she was fine, she hadn’t had any issues and seemed to think I was making fun of her driving or calling her crazy. This went on for a bit, her insisting everything was perfectly fine and me growing more and more concerned, particularly as we narrowly missed side-swiping other vehicles and pedestrians.
I finally demanded just why she thought she was centered in her lane. She told me that her driving instructor had taught her to center the white lines on the hood of her vehicle and she’d always be in the center of the road. When I quite testily replied that she’d probably learned to drive in a car, rather than a pickup truck, she went silent. It was a thoughtful silence. After she considered the fact that a truck was several feet higher than the car she’d previously driven and the geometry was therefore different, she shifted over to something rather more like the middle of the lane.
The world and circumstances had changed. Her point of view had shifted, but she’d been operating under the same assumptions as before, not taking into account the changing conditions. It wasn’t that she was stupid, or that she was crazy, or even that she was reckless, it just hadn’t occurred to her that some of her basic assumptions were no longer valid. The paradigm had shifted and that had endangered her and fellow drivers around her.
The Star Wars quote, “From a certain point of view,” applies pretty strongly. Obi Wan spun the truth for Luke when he told him that Vader betrayed and murdered his father. He told Luke what he needed to hear, a simpler “truth” that set him on his journey of change, hoping that Luke would have the resilience and wisdom to understand the full truth as he gained experience. That’s what many teachers do, they give us the basic “rules” and hope that as time goes on, we fill in the blanks, we learn the “why” as well as the deeper complicated details.
It’s something to consider both in writing and in our lives in the real world. Be willing to re-examine some of the facts. Be willing to question those basic rules that you’ve lived by. Be willing to adapt and change. Your characters in the stories you write should learn from their mistakes, but they should also change and grow. Their beliefs and concepts of the world should adapt and grow with them. And perhaps we should hold ourselves to as high a standard.
Many writers and would-be writers aspire to be successful authors, with on-track careers, big publishing gigs, and the much-discussed “NYT Bestseller” attached to their names. But when you come down to it, how do you measure that?
The obvious one, the one that most people can wrap their heads around, is fame. Most people can name famous authors in the genre of choice, reeling off names like George RR Martin, JRR Tolkien, Michael Crichton, and Tom Clancy. These are people who have sold millions of books… they have movie (or TV) franchises. They’re famous, that means success, right?
But then again, Phillip K. Dick has a ton of movies based upon his books and short stories (even several remakes). His life, if you look him up, isn’t what most would consider “successful.”
As for the vaunted NYT Bestseller, there’s been multiple times that people have scammed it, with the latest example being just last year (link). When you dig into what it involves, too, you see that the stamp represents sales in a very specific, very small part of the US.
Amazon bestsellers, you say? Amazon’s algorithms have been fooled before (link). I’ve earned the status the hard way, selling actual books in the genre they’re meant for, but there’s plenty who haven’t and lots of them are eager to sell new authors books, lectures, and videos on how to be a bestseller.
So these two metrics, fame/notoriety and the Bestselling category may not be the best method of determining success. What is? Total sales? Depending on your genre, a few dozen sales a day may be very good, whereas for some others, upwards of two hundred purchases a day is normal. The advent of Kindle Unlimited has changed things a bit, too, where power-readers treat Amazon like their library. Some authors see practically no sales at all in their genres but they see thousands (or tens of thousands) of page reads a day.
The answer there seems to be money. In fact, American society often judges success by money. That guy has a nice car, he must be successful. That person has a big house, they must be successful. But I have to ask, is money why you’re writing? I mean, there’s lots of easier ways to go about making money. You can avoid the crippling self-doubt and the long hours of forcing words out and go into something far more lucrative and more likely to actually make you rich. Larry Correia’s has a fantastic post on the different levels of authors based upon their “success.” His is focused mostly on money and fame, too, which I can’t fault. But the number of authors who make enough from writing to support their families, much less buy a McMansion is relatively low.
I know a lot of authors. By a lot, I mean I personally know a couple hundred and I’ve met and interacted with thousands. I’ve seen quite a few who get into indie publishing very excited and enthusiastic about this one book they wrote… and one year later, I don’t see them at conventions anymore or when I do, they’re sitting in the crowd, not up on a panel (which is fine, mind you, I sit in the crowd, sometimes, because I like listening in on what some people have to say). But a lot of people massively underestimate the sheer work involved in self-publishing. They underestimate the grind of getting out the next book, and the next. And they fall behind.
There’s a saying that when it comes to jumping out of perfectly good planes, the second jump is the hardest. The first time, you have no idea what’s going to happen, no frame of reference. The second time, standing in the doorway, you know exactly what it’s like, the rush and exhilaration… but also the understanding of what you’re doing and the lizard brain kicks in. Lots of people freeze in the doorway, unable to move.
The same thing happens to aspiring authors. They may have hit publish that first time, or even the second and third, in a rush of “this one will be great!” Writing that first book is hard. Writing the second or third one is just as hard, but a lot of aspiring authors have gone that distance. Writing that fourth book after the first one or two didn’t land a movie deal or pay the mortgage… or sometimes it didn’t even buy the bottle of wine to drink while you hit refresh on your Amazon page while you wait for reviews/sales. It’s hard. It’s brutally hard to get back to writing when it feels like all your dreams have shriveled and everyone has rejected you.
How authors feel after a book launch sinks…
Success is the person who keeps on writing after that. Success is the author who gets on the never-ending treadmill and churns out a novel regardless. That person is a successful author, because that writer puts words on page, day in and day out. It’s part of being a professional author. There’s lots of “good” writers, some of them are best-sellers with tv-shows and movies, who can’t do that. And sometimes, getting up the strength to put even a single word on the page is a herculean fight.
Success is never giving up. If you’re still writing, if you haven’t stopped, you’re successful. Now go out there and write your next book.
Wordbuilding is an important tool for any writer, particularly for science fiction. It adds depth to a book, it helps to develop character backgrounds, and it provides a pallate on which to paint your story. In Part 1 (link), I talked about the foundations of building your universe. In Part 2 (link) I talked about building worlds and star systems. Here in Part 3, I’m going to talk about those little details that really contribute to the story.
Where Does It Come From?
One of the questions I find myself asking as I read a book is where things come from. Who made the flying car, was it a fully automated factory or the hand-crafted work of a mad-genius inventor? All the “stuff” that your characters use and interact with has to come from somewhere, whether it’s the weapons they use to mow down the bad guys, the starship they use to travel from one world to another, or the hand-distilled gasoline they use to roam the wastelands. As an author, knowing who made it and how the character acquired it can be important. Maybe that ship was made by a renegade faction and they want it back, or the fuel is a rare and precious resource that people will kill over. These are world-building elements that can tie directly into plot points for your story. Knowing where it was made, who made it, and how it got into the characters hands can give you a lot of material to work with in your story.
Who Are The Big Players?
Knowing who the big players are in the universe is a key part of worldbuilding and crosses over into plotting out your novel. Knowing that the antagonist for the main character in your first novel is the henchman of a greater villain that your characters will have to fight further on down the line is a perfect example. Knowing that the ally of a player is the child of a world leader sets up some potential help or conflicts of interest down the road. Putting names in your book isn’t necessary, but it does add some depth. Knowing how those people interact and whether or not they get along also adds some depth and can help you to write your story. The main characters getting caught up in familial disputes is part of the driving element of my Children of Valor series, and its something that most people can easily relate to, in that family can often be as much a hindrance as help.
Putting It All Together
At this point, you’ve gone from the big questions all the way down to the characters that fill your universe. Hopefully you have a good grasp on how it all ties together. That’s all great news, but right now you don’t have a novel, you have a setting. Putting it all together, making things happen, requires characters.
Creating interesting and dynamic characters is much easier when you draw them from the backgrounds of the worlds they live in. A renegade heir to a corporate empire who has forsaken his family’s ill-gotten gains can be all the more real when you know that his parent’s company utilizes the equivalent of slave labor in their factories. The never-do-well mercenary with a heart of gold makes for a more dynamic and realistic character when you know that he once served in the military and was a decorated war-hero, before everything went south.
Your setting, the world you built, comes to life with characters. They bring with them all their experiences, all their background, and they are the paintbrushes with which you tell your story. Remember, also, that you’re here to tell a story, not to show every detail of the world you created. Sprinkle in those details throughout, but treat them like spices when you cook, a little bit can go a long way.
Thanks for reading, and feel free to check out my other posts on world-building. I’ve got one on Steampunk and one on Fantasy.
Kal Spriggs 