The Case of the Missing Writer

Hello, there!

Miss me?

I know, I went from being pretty prolific in my social media to being a veritable ghost!  Unfortunately, I kind of expected that when I knew I had to go back to a day job.

I mean, I’ve balanced my work life, home life, and writing life before, but it was always a delicate balance, and being a neurodivergent person, a lot of my (limited) success in that arena depended on things being stable amongst all three.

Life has been anything but stable.  For a long time.  And now that I’ve started not just a new job, but a new career, one of those three things has obviously been upended.  Plus, my home life has been out of balance for a long time, due to having to move frequently (thank you Denver Metro for having a horrific housing/rental market…)

So what does that mean for the future?  Am I back on social media starting today?

No.  :(

The New Career

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I started a new career as a technical writer!  Well, it’s actually a bit more than just that.  Officially my title is “Business Process Analyst” which I’ve learned basically translates to “Technical Writer+”.

I generally keep my job separate from social media, but given that my job involves writing, I did want to touch on it just a bit, in a very general and vague sense.

Technical writing is a very different beast from creative writing, as you might imagine.  However, I was already semi-familiar with it, because as a computer sys admin, a big part of what I did was document processes and procedures for everything I did, quite meticulously.  And I was also a bit of an outsider in doing so – sys admins generally aren’t good writers.  They generally don’t like writing.  Every job I ever worked had a dearth of documentation, and I usually spent a considerable amount of time and effort fixing that.

My bosses loved me for that.  (In fact, my current manager hired me in this new career because he remembered how diligent I was with documentation!)  People who took over after I’ve left a job loved the documentation!  It is something that’s very much needed in the technical field, and yet is so very often ignored or overlooked.

But becoming a Technical Writer, let alone a Technical Writer+ (err, I mean, a BPA), it’s a whole other bag of worms!  Because I’m not just learning how to manage my system and then writing procedures as I figure it out for myself.  I’m not even just focusing on one system.

I’m focusing on an entire program!

Things that I previously ‘let other people deal with,’ like program management, suddenly is front-and-center for me.  Policies, processes, procedures, for all aspects of a technical program, are now my business.  I have to learn it all, so that I can write about it all.

So the past two months have been a bit of an information overload.  That, more than anything, is why I’ve not been on social media.  Why I haven’t been writing, or editing, or really doing much of anything creative-writing-related.  Because when I get home, I’m exhausted.

However, there is one good thing about all of this – I’m SO much happier where I’m at, doing what I’m doing!  Before now, I went from one toxic work environment to another.  But finally, I’m in what finally feels like a good-quality work environment with coworkers who actually care (about their work AND about their coworkers).  My manager is encouraging and helpful, and I’m not frustrated every single day!

And I’m not stressing out over keeping computers operational.  Instead, it’s now my job to help enable the people responsible for keeping systems operational.  Basically, I’m more of a support person now.  And my stress levels are ever-so-grateful for that!

When Is My Next Book Coming Out?

So with my writing life being impacted so heavily by my new career, when is my next novel coming out?

Believe it or not, that’s not being impacted by this at all, not yet (and hopefully not at all).  Project Sirius 2 is still coming out this year!

Unfortunately, there’s a move coming up for us soon.  We live in a really ratty, stressful apartment complex right now, and so we’re gonna move soon.

Once that move is done, I’m gonna give myself some time to unwind and relax and live life.

So, my current plan?  Project Sirius 2 should be out this Fall.  That’s my goal.

The Awakening came out in September, but I don’t think I’ll make the one-year mark on book 2.  Instead, I’m thinking closer to the end of October.

What comes after that?  I still have to write the Sword of Dragons 5.  2 chapters are written, and that’s all.  I fully intend to use NaNoWriMo this year to make a huge dent in it, but I’d be shocked if I finished the entire novel in that single month.  Then again, I’ve shocked myself before.  And if home life gets better (IE: our new apartment is less stressful to live in), who knows, I could find myself with another major creative outpouring :)

But for 2024, only a single novel is expected to be published.  My goal for Sword of Dragons 5 is sometime in 2025.

I wish I could write more.  I wish I could do what I did in 2020 and get 4 novels written!  But as long as I have a day job and don’t make enough on writing…that’s just not possible.

Speaking of my writing career and how it’s doing!

Surging Popularity of the Sword of Dragons!

I’m pleased to report that the Sword of Dragons saga is enjoying more attention than ever before!  For the first time ever, book, eBook, and Kindle reads are consistently happening!  I mean, as consistent as can be.

Let me put it to you this way – in years past, there were times where I’d only get a single sale in a month, and then a surge of four or five, then something more middling, then nothing at all.  KENP reads came in spurts.  A single person would apparently read book 1, then 2, maybe 3, and then possibly 4.  I could almost always track when a new person found the books because there was never any evidence that more than one person was reading at the same time.

Now?  Now I’m getting multiple orders of at least book one every month, often leading to sales of the other books in the series!  Usually it’s either book 1, and then a little while later, books 2, 3, and 4 all at once, or sometimes, all 4 books at once (and at least a handful of times, The Orc War Campaigns!)  And KENP reads?  I’m often seeing every single book being read a little bit at a time every single day!  Which means at least 4 people are reading at the same time!

“Oh woopey, 4 people at the same time!  That’s not impressive.”  Oh, yes it is.  For an author who, as I said before, saw maybe one person per month reading, a sudden uptick like this, that has lasted for months, is FREAKING AMAZING!

This is the biggest step forward I’ve ever seen in my writing career!

What’s the source?  Well, it started with a marketing boon.  I finally found a video (click here to see it) that explained the Amazon advertising algorithm, and how to navigate it, in a way that I could understand (previous videos or help documents just didn’t click in my ADHD brain).  So I changed how I managed my ads, and within the first month of that change, I started seeing surges in new readership!

Following that, only a month later, I drastically had to (once again) reduce my advertising budget, killing off all advertising for some titles (Project Sirius :( ) so that I could keep the momentum going for Sword of Dragons.  But it’s still paying off, and in fact I’m seeing momentum building for Sword of Dragons despite not changing how much I’m spending on ads!

Another part of it – with the surge of new readers has come more ratings, and largely good ratings!  (Plus a new, glowing review on Amazon for Rise of the Forgotten!)  I think as my ratings numbers increase, and RotF stays above the 4-stars mark (which it so far has easily done), I might continue to see this momentum building!

In short, it’s a really, really good sign :D  And once things settle with my new career, I intend to take what I learned for advertising with Sword of Dragons, and apply it to Project Sirius to try to get interest in that series going, especially after book 2 comes out!

How You Can Help

I am immensely grateful for each and every one of you who reads my novels!  I know there’s been a slight uptick in new readers to this blog, too, and I’m so glad you’re here!  I hope you’re willing to show me some patience over the coming months as my life undergoes various changes – that’s the first way you can help (showing patience with me) ;)

The other way?  The biggest way you can help?  Please leave ratings for any of my books that you’ve read on Amazon, as well as anywhere else you’re willing to leave a rating on!

Better still, on top of those ratings, please leave a written review!  Something as simple as “I liked it” or “I thought it was okay” is good, but if you have the time and want to go into a little bit more detail, you’d be helping not just me, but you’d be helping future readers decide if they want to give my book a chance!

In fact, that’s one of the best things about reviews – you’re not just helping the author, you’re helping your fellow readers find the right books for them (by steering those with similar taste in the right direction!)

Beyond that, you can like, comment on, and share my social media posts, like this one!

Thank you for reading! :)
-Jon Wasik

Juggling Different Creative Efforts

Hello, there!

Welcome to 2024!  Let’s hope it’s a better year than the previous four!

I thought I’d kick things off by just letting you all know what I’m working on these days, and where I’m at with them.  So let’s dive in, starting with my next audiobook!

Burning Skies Audiobook Coming Soon

Earlier this week, I finished recording Burning Skies!  That doesn’t mean it’s ready to go, not by a long shot, but it is a huge milestone!

What’s next?  Well, editing primarily.  Throughout the process of recording, I occasionally took days off from voice work and did editing, so I’m not starting from scratch on it, but I do still have about 3/4’s of the book audio files to edit, so it’s still a long ways to go!

I also know for a fact that there are some dialogue sections I’ll need to re-record.  Especially for the crystalline entities known as the Navitas – I started off voicing them one way in one chapter, and then later changed my mind and voiced them different, so I’ll need to re-record those earlier dialogue sections.  Not a huge deal, and shouldn’t slow me down much.

After that, I’ll need to ‘listen to it in the wild,’ taking the MP3 files and listening to them while driving, exercising, etc, to see how it sounds and if anything needs additional work.

Project Sirius Book 2 Will Be Out This Year

I finished writing Project Sirius Book 2 (title still undecided) last year, so the hardest part is already done ;)  Today, taking a break from, well, everything else, I started another round of proofreading on it.

Once that’s finished, I’m hoping to start working on the publication package.  I’m…well, sad that I haven’t gotten further feedback from beta readers.  But I can’t wait forever, so I’m going to move forward on this one.

Right now, due to the whole job furlough situation, I can’t afford to engage the cover artist, but that situation will probably be resolved soonish.  (More on that further down.)

I already know what I want for the cover, and should be able to communicate it very easily to the artist, so I expect work on the cover to go fast :)

The Sword of Dragons Book 5 Stalled

Unfortunately, writing book 5 of the Sword of Dragons has…stalled.

And I can’t really point to just one reason for it.  Part of it is…struggling with stress and anxiety, so creativity is hard to come by.  (That whole job furlough thing.)  Also, due to the delays to audiobook recording, I focused heavily on that lately, and that left little time for any other creative efforts.

Will I start it up again soon?  That’s the plan!  Though it’s a bit frustrating, because I really want to write Project Sirius Book 3!!!!!

Anything Else On The Side?  Why, Yes!

Long-time readers of this blog know – I’m a gamer.  It’s one of the ways I decompress.  But when I game, I often find myself playing survival games that allow building structures, ships, etc.  I’ve loved building starships on Starfield, for instance!

But a big project that I’ve collaborated with my wife and my best friend on is getting closer to completion, and I’m excited to share it with folks soon!  In the video game 7 Days to Die, we’ve recreated the Raccoon City Police Station from Resident Evil 2 Remake!  It’s taken months, and there’s still a lot of work to be done on it, but most of that now is detail work :D

Back To Work?

Speaking of my job furlough earlier, I’ve reluctantly acknowledged that, for now, I cannot yet make a living off of voice acting.  As a beginner, the most I could expect is maybe $1k/month, depending on the projects I could get outside of recording my own books (and those pay considerably less ;) ).

That’s not enough, by a long shot, to live off of.  Hence why I always intended to try to segue into it part-time at first.  As does happen frequently in my life, those plans are always shoved aside.

So I’m going to start actively looking for a new day job.

I don’t really have a choice.

My novels are selling better than ever, but still fall far short of ever becoming sustainable, my voice acting isn’t even close yet either, and there has been zero interest in my Patreon :(

What does that mean for creative stuff?  It means the output frequency is going to drastically decline.  Who knows when I’ll finish writing my next novel.  Who knows when I’ll finish my next audiobook.

I’m back to square one.

But I gotta do what I’ve gotta do to survive.

On the bright side, I acknowledge that a lot of my resistance to day job work has been toxic managers or work environments at the last couple jobs I’ve worked.  So I’m going to try to be a bit more discerning with whom I apply to and accept a job from.  I recall from past experiences that I absolutely loved I.T. work when I was with companies and had coworkers that I loved!

True, I might not have a choice at first, I might have to take whatever comes my way right away.  But I’ll definitely try for better.

Anywho, that’s all I’ve got for today.  Thanks for reading!  And if you feel like helping out a poor, starving writer/voice actor, tell your friends and family about my work, like my posts, subscribe anywhere you can, and especially to my Patreon page!

-Jon Wasik

Musings of the Week – New Book’s Performance, Reading Old Works

Hello, there!

Today’s post will be a bit of a different format – I didn’t have any one topic long enough to count as its own post, and no real conclusions to make, just some musings.  So without further ado…

The Awakening’s Performance

It’s been almost a week since The Awakening debuted, so how has it measured up?

Strangely enough, kinda good, but also not terribly great.

The amount of pre-orders for The Awakening was about half of the pre-orders I’d received for Legacy, but considering what happened post-release with Legacy, I wasn’t surprised, and didn’t look at that as an indicator.

Legacy kicked off a new series just like The Awakening, and I heavily marketed Legacy pre-release.  Between beta reader feedback and the pre-order numbers, I was flying high on release day!

Unfortunately, that high lasted mere days.  The very first rating that came in for it was a 2-star.  Followed  by another 2-star.  It was…a depressing time.

But what about The Awakening?  Well I’m happy to say that on Amazon, there’s a 4-star and a 5-star rating, with a glowing 5-star review!  On Goodreads, it’s also received a 4-star rating and review!  So that’s a good start!  Better still, for a short time, The Awakening jumped up to be in the top 100,000 kindle books in the entire Kindle store!  That might not sound good, but considering it had already backpedaled to 3,000,000 pre-release (Only one person pre-ordered the Kindle edition, compared to the numerous print pre-orders), that jump from 3,000,000 to under 100,000 was significant!  It also hit under the top 100 for Teen and Young Adult LGBTQ+ Fiction for a short time!

All in all, compared to anything I’ve written and published before, a very strong start!

Unfortunately, I had hoped for more reviews.  That was explicitly why I’d sent out Advanced Reader Copies, to have numerous reviews up-front and get the ball rolling on positive marketing.  Unfortunately, one of two things is happening – either almost none of those readers are leaving reviews, or Amazon is blocking them.  So far, only two Advanced Readers actually have reviews posted.

But that is apparently one of the greatest struggles for independently published authors.

And let me tell you, I have noticed a definite difference.  When Rise of the Forgotten hit 30 ratings, mostly 5-star, suddenly more readers were coming to the table, and within a month, it went from 30 to 33 ratings, after years and years of barely getting any.

So yes, dear readers, ratings, and especially reviews, make a huge difference.  If you want to support your favorite author beyond just buying their books, the easiest and best thing you can do is write a review :)

The Pain Of Reading Old Works

I think I’ve already mentioned it, but whenever I get ready to write another book in a series, I go back and re-read all of the previous books.  That way I’m in the right mindset, and I’m more familiar with what came before.

Artwork by Vuk Kostic

The time has come to write the next Sword of Dragons novel!  That means going back and re-reading Rise of the Forgotten.

Except something has changed, in me….

The last time I read Rise, I still liked it.  I still felt like it was a strong story, fairly well-written, if a little rough around the edges.  And given the ongoing positive ratings it receives, there’s definitely other readers out there who feel the same way.

But this time…I’m struggling with it.  I feel like there’s way too much exposition, and sometimes that exposition is a little repetitive.  I have to force myself to read thoroughly, to not skip parts.

What’s changed?

For starters, this happens to every writer.  I read or heard once about someone meeting Jim Butcher and telling him they’d just read his first Dresden Files novel, and he lamented them having to read his early works, and encouraged that reader to get to more recent Dresden Files novels.  (I still very much enjoy Storm Front, but Butcher’s writing definitely gets better with each novel!)

Seriously, it happens to us all.  Or at least…it should.  Because like all art, hell, like all careers, you can always get better.  The moment you stop believing that, the moment you stop trying to learn more, or grow, or ‘get better,’ is the moment you doom yourself.

With all of that in mind, I’m actually encouraged by this feeling of distaste towards my first published novel.  It means I’ve grown as a writer, and am still growing.  I haven’t become stagnant.

There’s another bonus to this effort: I can see what I did wrong, and ensure I don’t repeat those mistakes in my next novel.

In any case, that’s all I have for you today, dear readers!

Wait, you’re eager for updates on my next novel?

Let’s just say I’m in the process of getting Project Sirius book 2 out to first-round beta readers ;)

Thanks for reading!
-Jon Wasik

Book Release Day – The Awakening Now Available!

Hello, there!

Today’s the day – I’m so excited to announce that The Awakening, Project Sirius book 1 is available for purchase!  Head on over to your favorite online bookstore and purchase your copy today!

Better still, if you’re an Amazon Kindle Unlimited subscriber, you can read it today for absolutely no charge!

Click the link of your choice below to find your copy today!

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• Powell’s
• Bookshop.org (formerly IndieBound)

As an independently-published author, I humbly ask for your help – once you’ve read The Awakening: please leave a rating and a review!  Your review doesn’t need to be long or complex, a simple “I liked it” or “I didn’t like it” or “It was okay” is more than enough!  Ratings and especially reviews helps increase a book’s visibility, something all independently-published authors struggle with, so every review counts and is a huge boon to us!

The first review has already hit Goodreads, and exactly as I hoped, the book is very much written for a YA audience in mind, so spread the word to all the other YA Sci-Fi fans out there, especially in the LGBTQ+ crowd, and we can bring this new series to its audience!

Thank you for reading, and, well…I have a secret to tell you.

Promise not to tell anyone?

….

Project Sirius book 2 has already been written ;)

So this is just the beginning :D

-Jon Wasik

The Freedom in Sequels

Hello, there!

As of yesterday, August 25th, 2023, the first draft of Project Sirius Book 2 has been completed!!!

This is despite (or even in spite of ;) ) the writer’s block I dealt with about mid-way through!  I started writing book 2 on June 8th, 2023, with an average of 1 to 2 chapters per day (on the days I wrote, which was not every day), leaving me with the following numbers!

Chapters: 53
Pages (editing format): 464
Words: 138,016

To give you an idea of how much bigger than book 1, here were the numbers for book 1’s first draft!

Chapters: 36
Pages: 297
Words: 86,672

So quite the jump!  Plus, I fully expect the word count on book 2 to go up (just like it did for book 1), because I already know there’s a few sections that are lacking some basic descriptions for the characters.

But what I’m really here to talk about today is the freedom that comes with a sequel, and how much I thoroughly enjoyed writing book 2 :)

Knowing The Characters

I’ve talked before (a long time ago) about how there’s two different kinds of ongoing series.  The example I gave back then was the difference between Star Trek The Next Generation and Star Trek Deep Space Nine.

Image Source – memory-alpha.wikia.com

In TNG, you could more-or-less start watching at any point in the series and, as long as you already understood the basics of Sci-Fi and Trek, you wouldn’t be lost.  Each story was a standalone in and of itself.  To be sure, the characters grew with each passing season, but mostly, no one episode was dependent upon a previous one (with some famous examples being Borg-related episodes, or Worf’s discommendation).

In DS9, particularly after the first few seasons, it was highly serialized.  It wasn’t one-off stories each episodes, it was a continuation of a long story.  There were still one-off filler episodes, sure, but for the most part, DS9 was one big, 7-season story.

Despite TNG being my favorite Trek series, I actually prefer the serialized stories.  The long ones where things build upon one another.  Especially if the stories and characters are interesting!  (Dresden Files is definitely one of my favorite, longest-running series out there!)

This is the approach I’m taking with Project Sirius, and in doing so, it means that the character introductions (for the main characters, any way) were taken care of in book 1.  I get to dive right into the story of book 2, and instead of spending time developing who they are from the outset, I get to spend more time exploring who they have become, and who they are becoming!

And let me tell you, if you thought Mika’s journey in book 1 (I know, I know, it’s not out yet!) was intense and drastic, wait until you see what she goes through in book 2!

On top of that, because I no longer felt constrained by the ‘normal’ genre limitations (YA Sci-Fi generally doesn’t go beyond 90k words per book), I felt like I could spend more time with Mika and the other characters, getting to know who and what they are, getting to know the world they live in.  This is one of the big reasons book 2 is so much longer, but the story itself just plain demanded it.  I actually didn’t originally intend book 2 to be so long, but I’m really happy with where it is!

What’s Next for Project Sirius?

First, starting tonight, I’ll begin the first round of proofreading and editing on book 2!  I anticipate it’ll take a little longer than most 1st rounds, because I feel like there’s actually some details missing from book 2 that I want to add in as I go through it, but all in all, it still shouldn’t take too long.

Book 1, The Awakening, is only a couple weeks away from release!  That’ll be the next big milestone!  I was already excited with book 1’s story and getting it out to the world to read, but now that I know where things go after book 1, I’m even more excited!  This is a story that will just get better and better, I think :)

Round 1 of beta reading will begin around that same time – my typical round 1 beta readers have already read The Awakening, so no spoilers for them ;)

And then, well, we’ll go from there!

In the mean time, I may try to refocus again on The Sword of Dragons book 5 – it’s had a lot of time to percolate in my imagination, I want to see if I can get it nailed down.  I may possibly be able to start writing it for NaNoWriMo 2023, but I’m not sure yet on that.

So when will Project Sirius book 2 release?  I’m not sure yet, but definitely sometime in 2024!  Whether early, mid, or late will depend on a lot of factors over the coming months!

Until then, if you haven’t already, pre-order your copy of The Awakening today!

Amazon (Print & Kindle)
Barnes & Noble (Print)

Thanks for reading!
-Jon Wasik

The Bigger, The Better? Increasing Book Length In A YA Series

Hello, there!

Progress continues on Project Sirius book 2, and as of this week, I have written chapter 36!

Additionally, chapter 36 marks the conclusion of part 2 of 3!

Chapter 36 also brings the overall manuscript word count to 94,600!

Why am I throwing all of these numbers at you?

Well for starters, The Awakening is 36 chapters in its entirety, and sits at juuuust under 90,000 words.

By this measurement, it’s likely that book 2 will be one and a half times longer than The Awakening.  That’s quite a jump!  But is it too big?

I’ve talked before about when to stick to genre norms and when to break them, and why I chose to adhere to them for The Awakening.  I’ve also noted that it’s okay to break from genre norms, especially in a series of escalating complexity.

But how big is too big?  And does it being a YA series make a difference?

Escalating Size – The Harry Potter Saga

Alright, before I get into this, if seeing the name “Harry Potter” has triggered a visceral reaction, I want to be absolutely clear about something – I do NOT support Rowling’s anti-trans rhetoric.  I stand with the LGBTQ+ community.

But Harry Potter as a series, as a story, holds a special place in a lot of hearts, including amongst the LGBTQ+ community.  And after decades of becoming such a moving and visceral work of art in our hearts and minds, it’s impossible to discount it as something worth analyzing, and its success speaks for itself.  Additionally, we live in an era where it is entirely possible to be a Harry Potter fan without being a fan of or supporting JK Rowling.  Used book stores, for instance (trust me, as a published author, I can tell you that we get zero royalties from used book sales), or purchasing themed merchandise from conventions (which also results in zero royalties going to the author, unless it is an officially licensed vendor).

You also can’t deny that the Harry Potter series is surprisingly well-written, and is a good example of stories written for younger audiences that don’t talk down to them or treat them in a patronizing manner.  This, in turn, has made the series accessible to readers of all ages.

And that part about not ‘talking down’ to your audience?  That’s the big deal.  That’s huge.  I myself have a lot of fond memories of reading books (and watching shows and movies) that were definitely geared towards adults that I absolutely loved as a child (immediate examples I can think of: Alien and Predator movies).

It’s also why I think breaking age-range genre tropes is okay.

So, back to Harry Potter.  Recently (as in this past weekend), while my wife and I discussed the likelihood of Sirius 2 being 1.5 times the length of The Awakening, we thought to look at Harry Potter and how well known it is for having longer and longer books as the series progressed.

For one of my birthdays, many years ago, I was gifted a box set of books 1 through 6 as hardbacks, and then later bought book 7 in the same format, so they are all printed with the same paper thickness, same font, etc.  This allowed for a far more accurate accounting of page count changes from book to book (since Amazon’s page counts of each book seems to make zero sense).

Looking at those, the page count came out as the following:

Book 1 – 309
Book 2 – 341
Book 3 – 435
Book 4 – 734
Book 5 – 870
Book 6 – 652
Book 7 – 759

You can see a relatively slow progression at first, and then sudden leaps with books 4 and 5 (and then a decrease for 6 and 7).

One of the reasons Rowling has cited for this increase is a desire for the stories to grow up with the kids, but even if you remove that motivation, you can see that the stories become more and more complex, nuanced, and frankly, interesting with each volume.

This also isn’t the only series out there with increasing page counts, but it’s the best and most well-known example.  (Another that comes to mind – the Ender’s Game series.)

And even my own Sword of Dragons saga saw books 2 and 3 coming out longer and longer, with book 4 tapering back just a bit from 3.

It seems as though longer books as a series goes on is, well, normal.  Even expected, and that’s including among YA or, in the case of Harry Potter’s initial books, Middle Grade stories.

Where does Project Sirius fall in this progression?  Book 1, in its print format, comes to 272 pages in length.  If you multiply that by the expected 1.5x, I expect book 2 to come out to just over 400 pages.

That’s a bigger jump than HP did from books 1 to 2, and even from 2 to 3, but it definitely falls short of the jump from 3 to 4.

As you can probably tell, this jump in size has been on my mind a lot lately, and I have worried about it.  But I’m telling the story that needs to be told, in all of its nuances and with all of its peaks and valleys.  Plus, looking at how much books have grown in other series, I feel a lot better about it.

It’s too early to tell right now, but so far, I think I like book 2 better than The Awakening.  Of course, what I like and what readers like isn’t always the same, but for now, I’m confident that if you fall in love with The Awakening, what you’ll get from book 2 will be even more to love :)

Anywho, thanks for reading my ramblings on the topic!  I hope you enjoyed reading, and if you have any thoughts or comments about all of this, I’d love to hear them!  Just drop a note in the comments section below :D

Thanks!
-Jon Wasik

Crafting the Future History of Humanity

“The future is not set.  There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.”

That’s one of my favorite lines from the Terminator franchise, and for any sci fi writer, it’s a worthwhile line to remember.

For those of us who craft stories of the future, it means that anything is possible.  It means that we have free reign to imagine any future.  In fact, it means we must imagine it.

For me, this year, that means imagining the future in which Project Sirius takes place!

Forget World Building, This Is Universe Building!

One of my favorite parts of writing a new series is world-building!  Until now, most of that has been centered on the Sword of Dragons saga, a completely original Universe, with no Earth to speak of.  Everything is crafted from the ground up.  The worlds, the cities, the cultures, the countries, and the magic system.

So not just a world, a whole Universe!

But for Project Sirius, things are a bit different.  I’m not building out a wholly original Universe.  I’m not inventing a brand new magic system.  Instead, I’m plotting out a possible future for humanity, a realistic look at the tomorrow that could come from the real today, and the course of technological advancement that leads us there.

See, this is what I love about writing – every time I start a project, I get to explore new topics, and seek out new knowledge and new….err, wait, that’s Star Trek ;)

Seriously, though, building up the Universe for Sirius definitely leveraged my experience building up the Sword of Dragons Universe, but I’ve had to learn about a whole slew of new topics, and it’s been an absolute blast!

Image Source – gagrid.deviantart.com

For the first novel, a lot of my research focused on the design and size of the ship itself – how big did a population have to be in order to maintain genetic diversity over the course of generations?  Under controlled conditions, 5,000 seemed an appropriate number, especially when throwing in some Sci Fi “magic” (IE tech) to help.  How big of a land area is needed to properly house and feed 5,000 people?  Well…again with some Sci Fi “magic” thrown in, I was about to put it in a dome at about 5 kilometers in diameter.  And that’s pushing it.

Learning this information helped inform what kind of culture would exist in the ship’s medieval-style town.  A tightly controlled society.  This, in turn, helped me develop themes and the characters.

In fact, it’s impossible for me to say what was developed first: the characters, the plots, the themes, or the Universe?  A sort of ‘chicken or the egg’ paradox, except it really is easy to resolve in this case – they were all developed concurrently.

But that was book 1, The Awakening.  Book 2 is something else entirely.  Because the focus will expand well beyond the confines of the town and the ship, and while I had some idea of what things would be like in the rest of the Universe, I hadn’t fully developed it yet.  I wanted to do that only once I needed to, so that I could help develop it along side the story.

So, what comes with book 2?  The actual future history of humanity.

And as much as I love Star Trek…it isn’t all sunshine and roses.

The Bleak and the Bold

One of the cool parts about writing fantasy and sci fi is exploring current day topics and issues in a fantastical or future setting.  And let’s face it…things are kinda looking bleak in the world these days.

Front and center in that picture is greed, and the 1% influencing, directing, or flat-out controlling the direction of society.  Sometimes without us realizing it, sometimes with us fully knowing it but unable to do a thing to stop it.

So as I started to craft the future history, I looked to where we are now, and where we might go if things don’t change.  Where the corporations might take us if they are left unchecked by unions, unchecked by society.

But I also looked to the past.  To what incentivized the Westward Expansion, for instance, and other colonization, because that’s a big part of the future history I’ve been crafting in Sirius – colonizing other worlds.

Technological limitations aside, what would make humanity and, more to the point, corporations fund colonization ventures into space?  Well, what else?  Wealth.  The promise of wealth.

Which means exploitable resources, lots of them.  Think Avatar and that movie’s “Unobtanium.”  But instead of some McGuffin, I thought about what else it could be.  What real-world resources were needed, and no, it isn’t oil that’ll take us to the stars, not now that everyone is finally accepting our role in climate change.

To put it simply, metals, valuable minerals, and in the case of power generation, deuterium and tritium.

Fusion power.

There’s still some sci fi stuff involved, too, including the eventual ‘inexpensive’ creation of antimatter.

Right now, any and all faster-than-light theoretical propulsion methods require exotic matter that we haven’t even proven exists (either that or it requires more power than our sun generates).  But it started with “what would get us into space faster right now?” and I took it from there.

I’m still working on it, but as of today, I have plotted out the ‘future history’ of the Terran system (IE solar system) and the Alpha Centauri colony.  There’s a lot more colonies out there, but for now, those two are my focus for the events that take place in Project Sirius 2.

I think I’ll stop here, though, because I almost wrote a paragraph with considerable spoilers in it ;)  I hope you’ve enjoyed this insight into the Universe of Project Sirius!  I mean…I know it sounds bleak, but remember, there’s always hope.  Or as they say in Star Trek, “There are always…possibilities.”

And Mika will never be the kind of person to just lie down and let the world steamroll over her ;)

Thanks for reading!
-Jon Wasik

10 Year Anniversary – Completing the First Sword of Dragons Novel

Hello, there!

Cover by Christian Michael

This month marks the 10 year anniversary for when I finished writing what would become my first published novel, The Sword of Dragons (later rebranded as Rise of the Forgotten, The Sword of Dragons book 1)!

While the novel wouldn’t see publication for a further 2 years, it still was a remarkable accomplishment!  Since then, a lot has happened, and a lot has changed.  One of the more notable changes is how I write novels today compared to how I wrote them back then.

I once wrote about my method for developing and writing novels, but I think the time has come to revisit that, and discuss how that has changed.

Back Then – Planning Every Chapter

Ask any novelist about plotters vs pansters, and they’ll probably probably state which they are, why, and maybe what they think about the other type of writer.

Back in 2013, I was through-and-through a plotter.  I developed chapter-by-chapter outlines for every novel I wrote, starting with the Sword of Dragons book 1.

I’d start with an idea for a story, write those ideas down, and start to develop a plot.  Once I felt I had enough ideas and themes figured out, I’d write down what I called the “general plot progression,” telling a basic version of the story from beginning to end.

Once that was done, I’d then go back, and start writing the basics of what would happen in each and every chapter, going into as much or as little detail as I felt was necessary to remind myself what should happen in each chapter.

After that, I’d begin writing the actual manuscript.  I’d usually have two word documents up on my screen, the chapter I was writing, and the chapter-by-chapter outline, so I could constantly refer back to my notes.  I generally tried to stick with my notes, and was really just ‘filling in the details’ as I wrote.  Sometimes new ideas would come to me, and I’d go a little off course, but I didn’t want to stray too far.  I didn’t want to have to re-develop the rest of the story.

How had I come up with this method?  In a way, it stemmed from how I developed my old fan fiction, Star Trek Dragon.  Starting around season 3, I had a general idea for the entire series, and a more specific idea for the season.  To help ensure there were no plot holes or ‘wasteful’ filler episodes, I plotted each episode out, ensuring that every episode contributed to the overall story.

This served my very well for developing a series.  When the first iteration of the Sword of Dragons failed to impress anyone, and I decided to rewrite it from scratch, I adopted this process.  Aside from a horrific 4-year writer’s block about 1/3rd of the way into book 1, it kept me on-task, and helped me write the story you all know today.

Because of how successful I perceived that method to be, I kept it up.  I developed Burning Skies with the same method, kept the momentum going, and then continued with Secrets of the Cronal.  Back when I wrote the first version of Legacy, Chronicles of the Sentinels book 1, I likewise wrote a chapter-by-chapter outline.

I felt like this method worked very well for me.  There were only a few times where it didn’t, like in Burning Skies when I added about 4 new chapters that I hadn’t originally planned while I wrote it, but all in all, it worked!

Except…

There was one problem.  And the first time it ever reared its ugly head was when I wrote Secrets of the Cronal.  I had a very solid plan for how things would go in it, including at the end when Reis was meant to betray Cardin and the others and steal the Sword of Dragons.

If you’ve read Secrets of the Cronal, you’ll know that didn’t actually happen.

It was the first time where a character so viscerally refused my plans for them.  This wasn’t who Reis was.  The actions I planned for him were so against his character that it broke the story.  And because so much of the plot I’d developed, chapter-by-chapter, depended on this happening, when I got to that point and realized it couldn’t happen…writing came to a full-on stop.  I not only had to re-write that chapter, but I had to figure out how the rest of the novel would play out, not to mention the rest of the series.

I felt shackled by the plan I had come up with.  So, finally, I said, “Hell with it,” and I threw the rest of the plan out the window, and I just ‘went with it.’  I wrote whatever came out.

Later, going through revisions and proofreads, I had a lot of cleanup and adjustment to do.  Secrets of the Cronal had one of the longest production and post-production times for any of my novels back then.

And it got me thinking – maybe plotting every single chapter wasn’t the best way to go.  It kept me from letting the story evolve in the direction it needed to.

Then, in 2019, everything changed.

Neither Plotter nor Pantser – The Hybrid Approach

In 2019, I had an idea to revive Legacy, and it involved a complete re-write.  At the time, I’d been reading the Dresden Files, and I liked the approach Jim Butcher used – a single character’s point of view, rather than a myriad.  I had been thinking of how to make Chris Tatsu a more interesting character, and the story overall more interesting, and then it came to me – it needed to be a more personal story for Chris, and the single POV would facilitate that.

I also knew that some of my original plot ideas wouldn’t work with this new, limited POV, plus some of the plot elements just…didn’t make sense or weren’t interesting.

Fresh off of writing Secrets of the Cronal, I decided that instead of going back to the drawing board, so-to-speak, and writing down a new chapter-by-chapter outline, I’d just…wing it.  And Let the story go in whatever direction it needed.  Sure, this might introduce inconsistencies and errors, but those could be cleaned up and corrected in editing and revision.

With that freedom, I flew through the first draft!  I was so enthusiastic about it that I couldn’t stop writing!  When pandemic hit and my day job came to a virtual stand-still, this only made it easier, and before I knew it, Legacy was completed.

I capitalized on that, and after developing the basic plot for book 2, I wrote Retribution, and then once again, after spending some time developing the plot for book 3, I wrote Champions without a chapter outline.

I’d never written so much, so quickly, and I was proud of the work I’d created!  I was so happy with this new method of half-plotting (IE developing the general story) and then half-pantsing (writing the story without outlines, letting it take me wherever it needed to go) that I adopted the exact same method for writing Advent Darkness.

Now, those of you who don’t like Chronicles of the Sentinels might point to that series as an example of why this new, hybrid method is a mistake.  However, Advent Darkness has been lauded as my best-written work so far, and kicked off a resurgence in popularity for the Sword of Dragons saga!  So, while I still don’t really understand the relative failure of Sentinels, clearly Advent Darkness is proof that this method works, and works damn well.

It’s how I wrote The Awakening, as well.  I’ve shared The Awakening with more beta readers than any previous novel, and responses to it have been highly encouraging!

Of course, how a story is written obviously isn’t the only reason for a story’s success or failure.  But I do feel like this method helps me develop and write better stories.

The Future – Will I Change What I’m Doing?

As a writer, I’m going to continue to evolve and change.  Any writer worth their salt should.  To say, “I’ve found my method, I’m never changing it,” makes you unable to adapt to a changing world and to changing stories.

For now, this method very much suits me, and at this point, I’ve written more novels in this method than the plotter method.  But who knows what might happen tomorrow.

All I can promise is that I won’t stop writing.  :)

Thanks for reading!
-Jon Wasik

Dividing A Novel Into Parts – Project Sirius Book 2

Hello, there!

What’s this?  I only just got The Awakening out on pre-order, and I’m already talking about book 2 in the series???

That is the nature of the beast – book 1 is written, edited, and ready for release, so while I spend time marketing book 1, it’s also time to write the next novel.  In fact, I’m 19 chapters into book 2!

How does chapter 19 begin?  With the words “Part 2.”

I’ve seen this done in other novels before, the most recent that I’ve read being the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer (highly recommend reading them!)  Each novel was divided into four parts.

Having said that, I never actually thought I’d need to use that narrative structure.  So far, all of the main-series Sword of Dragons novels tell stories that are pretty linear and straightforward, and the same was true for the Chronicles of the Sentinels novels.  Probably the closest I’ve come was The Orc War Campaigns, a single narrative divided into nine distinct parts (with the final part further divided into two parts).

Artwork by Vuk Kostic.

But let’s take a look at that for a second…why nine parts for The Orc War Campaigns?  Why couldn’t the entire story be told as one, chapter-divided saga?

Never mind for the moment that I originally wrote it like a series, with episodes released once a month (with a sizeable break between episodes 5 and 6).  I could have easily retooled it into a single, chapter novel when I turned it into a print and eBook compilation, right?

Except that each episode, while continuing a larger, overall story line, had independent stories with distinct beginnings, middles, and ends.  That right there calls for something more than just chapter breaks.  There are both significant time gaps between the episodes, and narrative shifts.

In essence, it’s an extreme example of where placing part separations is appropriate.

So what about Project Sirius 2?

The Longer, More Complex Story

I’ve mentioned it in a couple of previous posts, but Project Sirius 2 is already turning out to be a vastly longer and more complex story than The Awakening.  This isn’t something I’m doing arbitrarily, but rather is what the story and the characters require, and as I wrote about before, since this is the 2nd novel in a series, I’m more willing to break genre norms for length.

Of course, I don’t want to spoil The Awakening, so what I can and can’t talk about here is somewhat limiting, but I wanted to explore the topic while I was actively working on it.

My original plan for book 2 is progressing in the direction I always intended it, with a decent chunk of story starting on the Sirius, but then more would take place off of the ship, on another planet.  As for the why, well, that’s not a spoiler for book 1, but definitely would be for book 2 ;)

However, when I started writing book 2, it very, very quickly became apparent to me that I left a lot unresolved in The Awakening.  Stuff I always knew I would resolve in book 2 and beyond, but I realized that some of this would require considerable more ‘screen time’ than I first thought.

So I’m 19 chapters in, and they haven’t left the Sirius yet.

Woops!

But I am so happy with how the story has turned out so far!  I love the journey that Mika has taken, the discoveries she’s made, and the hardships she’s endured.

And it all will directly inform everything that happens in part 2.

As for whether or not part 2 is the last part, or if it’ll have to be subdivided into part 3, well…I’ll let that work itself out as I go :)

The question, however, remains – why make a part 1 and part 2 to begin with?

For part 1, it largely deals with the consequences of what happens in The Awakening.  That’s not all that happens, but that is a large portion of it.  Part 2, while continuing on from those consequences, will largely focus on the journey off-ship.

To me, that makes for a very definitive break.  Unlike The Orc War Campaigns, parts 1 and 2 are not complete stories in and of themselves, and are part of one overall narrative, but a lot of the setting and action change locations, and there is a significant culture shift between parts 1 and 2…

But I don’t want to say more.  As the good Professor Song used to say, “Spoilers!”

In the mean time, don’t forget to pre-order your copy of The Awakening today!  And for those who don’t want to go through Amazon, you can now pre-order the print edition through Barnes & Noble!  :D  Use whichever link below you wish to pre-order from!

Print Edition – Barnes & Noble

Print Edition – Amazon

Kindle Edition

Thanks for reading!
-Jon Wasik

The Awakening – Project Sirius Book 1 Cover Reveal and Release Date!

Hey there!

Today’s the day – I am proud and excited to announce the cover reveal, release date, and pre-order availability of The Awakening, Project Sirius book 1!!!!

Without further ado (cause I’m sure you’ve already looked down at it ;)) I give you the front cover!

I am absolute in love with this cover!!!!  The artwork is amazing (and I’ll be going into how it came to be in a later post), and it just came together so well!  (You can click on the image to see a bigger version.)

Better still, here’s a look at the full print-edition cover!

That gives you a nice look at the back-of-book blurb I spoke of a few days ago, too ;)  And if you’re interested in the artist, check out Shupeipa on Fiverr!

So now to answer the really big questions…when will this be released, and where can you pre-order?

September 9th, 2023!

Just two months away!

And The Awakening is currently available to pre-order for Kindle or for print at Amazon.com, links below!  (Other print vendors will be listing the title very soon!)

Amazon Print

Amazon Kindle

Why separate links?  And if you’re super early to the party, why does the print edition not have cover art?

This is unfortunately one of those downsides to self-publishing.  It’s very difficult to coordinate simultaneous listings, because the self-publishing providers are inconsistent and semi-unpredictable.  When I pushed the button to activate pre-orders for Kindle, Amazon said it could take up to 72 hours.  My experience shows that it could be anywhere from an hour to 72 (in this case, it took 5 hours).

Similarly for the print edition, IngramSpark has sent all the data for the listings out to the vendors, but they are all inconsistent in how fast and how completely they get everything up into the listing.

But worry not, everything will link up in the next couple of days, and no matter which edition you buy, you’ll be getting the same awesome YA Sci Fi story with a snarky, LGBTQ+ protagonist :)

So tell your friends, tell your chosen family, tell anyone who’ll listen – a new saga begins!

Thanks for reading,
-Jon Wasik