Update: Things are Still Happening, I Promise!

Hello again, everyone! It’s been just over a month since my last update, so I wanted to pop in here and share what’s been going on in my little writing world. My last post was a bit of a downer; I was pretty up in my own head about how the series was progressing, and none of the important processes for getting Volume 2 finished and ready for publishing had really gotten underway. Well, forget about all that! This is a good news only post!

My first exciting announcement is that the cover art for Volume 2 is nearly completed! There’s a good chance I’ll receive the final version of it sometime this weekend, or at least a very-close-to-final version. The sketches I’ve seen of it so far are ah-MAZE-ing, and I’m excited to be able to show it off to the world! I can’t decide whether I should upload it as soon as I get it, or keep it a secret until the book has a release date. Decisions, decisions!

Next good news! Volume 2 should finally be getting its much needed final edit in the following few weeks. I don’t pretend to hold any beliefs that I’m a professional author, and I would be fine with publishing it as it stands now (its readable and understandable, the two most important qualities of a book!), but there’s something to be said for the final comb-through by someone much smarter than I am. Unless I’ve somehow missed a giant story-breaking element in the middle, it should be finished by the end of the month.

“Wait!” I hear you saying, “doesn’t that mean you’ll have everything you need to publish the book?” Well, technically, yes it does! Once the edits are done, I’ll spend a few nights shaping the book into its final print and digital formats, and then upload them to Amazon for approval. Having gone through the process once, I will definitely hold off on announcing a release date until everything is approved, but that news will come ASAP once I know it myself.

Okay. Maybe not everything is good news. While all of this simultaneous progress is great, I have one element of the book I’m worried about: the extra art. It seems to be a pretty commonly held practice to include additional artwork in novels like mine. I had two insert art pieces in Volume 1, plus a map of the world, and I planned on having two inserts for Volume 2. While those pieces are definitely still happening, I’m not sure if they’ll be done in time to make it into the final product; there’s a good chance they won’t be started until early October, which would definitely destroy my pie in the sky dreams of publishing by the end of this month if I wanted them in print. I would much rather publish the book without them, and upload the full resolution pictures to my website when they’re ready, but I wonder: Do you, dear reader, agree? I’m pretty sure this website has comments, so if you’re still reading this, let me know down there! Or reply to the tweet I made about this news post. Or some other form of communication.

Alright, back to good news again! Progress on Volume 3 continues to surpass my expectations. When I wrote my last post, I was sad to see my total word count at 46,000 words. “I’m behind schedule,” I thought to myself. “When Volume 1 came out, I already had 70,000 words of Volume 2 finished. There’s no way I can do that again!” Well, joke’s on you, dummy! I crossed 70,000 words today. While 24K words in a month might not seem like a lot compared to the pros, that’s a huge boost for me. At that rate, I might be approaching the end of Volume 3 by the time Volume 2 comes out! What a world.

Final good news: Even though the insert art might not be finished anytime soon, and I might keep the cover a secret, that doesn’t mean I won’t have any art to share with you. Keep an eye on my Twitter page (@RA_Adam_Ladner) for the next few weeks, and you won’t be disappointed!

That’s all I’ve got for the night. Between all of behind the scenes work and writing this post, I didn’t actually get anything written on Volume 3 tonight, but the future of the project is looking better than ever. I have nothing but enthusiasm for my writing, and I hope I can bring it to you in an official package as soon as possible. Until then, stay safe, and as always, thanks for reading.

~Adam

P.S. If you didn’t see it on Twitter, and haven’t meandered over to my Artwork page, check out the newest look at Lia by @VoidSynatic! It was nice to get to see her in a happier, more laid back piece.