I think friend of the blog Chuck put it best to me a few weeks ago. “When are you going to finish that &$#%! fractal book so we can see some of your fiction?”
Well, the book’s done, and should be on Amazon and Barnes & Noble in a week or so. So what’s next for [BTW]?
At the moment I’ve got three fiction projects in various stages of development. The top seed project is Surreality, a noir/technological mystery that I hope to have out to you by late 2013, early 2014. Surreality was actually the book I started working on after a long writing hiatus, and was also the first project I collaborated on with my editor/wife. I’m really excited to be actively working on fiction again, and this story in particular. As is typical of me, this one started as a short story, but the story I wanted to tell evolved first into a novel, and now probably into a series, though each book will be a self-contained mystery.
I’m also hoping to start the revision process up again for Dark Matter, my science fiction thriller, whose first draft I finished just prior to starting this blog. Writing [BTW] has helped me to develop a tighter writing style which I’m hoping to apply to this revision. Basically I need to take a 200K word book (Dune) and shrink it down to 125K (a little less than twice Surreality). My drafting process for Dark Matter was a little chaotic. For a while I’ve been writing first drafts with no chapters, just moving from scene to scene, with set word count goals for the day. While I think this can be a great way to let ideas flow out unfettered, I think I’d have a lot less work in revision if I drafted more like I do for the blog. With this in mind I’m going to try and redraft Dark Matter within a year, and maybe have a release version out to you by the end of 2014.
The last story, Atlantia, is a redraft of the first novel I ever completed, back in high-school. I got a good start on this redrafting process during NaNoWriMo 2011, and will probably try to work on it next year. I’d like to get this writing process down to six months for each book, but I still have a ways to go.
As for other goals, I’m working on giving the wife a night or two where I don’t mention the book, and taking my own little rest-bits between projects. Realistically I can’t wait to work on the next project, and I know the “little red-haired girl” loves me for it, even if I make her want to pull her hair out sometimes. Trust me, being married to a writer, and more than that actively working on projects with one, is not for everyone.
I am a very lucky man.
What are your next writing goals?
[BTW] : Ben Trube, Writer 
How about a sneak-peek excerpt of the Dark Matter draft for your faithful readers? 😀
You’re just saying that because you’ve read Surreality (twice?) We’ll see what I can do 🙂
Your fans have spoken, Ben. 😛
ONE of my goals this year is to get some (if not all) of my current books in print. I’m in the process of getting an editor, as I now know a few really good ones. Another goal was to rope me an agent, but ran into some rewrite snags with the project I have little time for. I’m really good at overloading myself.