October Update
10-5-26
Warmful wishes to you all, dear readers.
It has been some time since my last update, so today I plan to inform on what I’ve been up to, and how the Shifting Memory and Gatherer’s Bounty universes are doing as we transition from summer to fall.
This year I’ve written another novel, it’s first draft is finished, and I couldn’t be prouder of the prose I’ve composed. Normally, as soon as I have finished a story I jump right into the next one, but this time I’ve decided to go ahead and do a 2nd draft of a novel I wrote last year, in preparation of my editor giving it a read. The former is a novel set in the Gatherer’s Bounty series, while the latter is set in the Shifting memory series. Shifting Memory is a universe I’ve really not explored that deeply yet in novel form, having written only one book in its series so far before this latest one bringing the count up to two. This second novel really thrusts the reader into one of the main conflicts plaguing the world of Unfeasted, and it can be read and enjoyed without any prior knowledge, as characters and settings are entirely separate from the first novel in the series.
What Do These Two Stories Mean To Me?
The latest novel in the Gatherer’s Bounty series is a story I have been wanting to tell about a certain character for years now, one that I had always pushed aside as other stories popped up and demanded be written. It is the crux of this universe, its characters, settings, and stories panning entire Eras. It, like many of my books, can be enjoyed without any prior knowledge, and can be followed up directly, or can be left as a standalone. I like the idea of seeing glimpses into this world, of key moments, people, places, as the broader narrative comes into focus, and all the little bits you’ve read all come to mean something much greater than the sum of their parts. It is a forward momentum, a dragging wind, a bunch of seemingly massive events at the time, that in retrospect, and given the time, would come to seem so very small in comparison.
The latest novel in the Shifting Memory series is a story about compassion for one’s loved ones, for one’s job. It is about a desire to help, a desire for justice, and what happens when those desires are allowed to engorge beyond what their inception was intended for, when those desires become harmful to the desire-er and the desire-e. I really enjoy writing in this world, and as stated above, I have only begun to scratch the surface. Set in a more modern day time period than Gatherer’s Bounty novels, it allows me to flex a whole new muscle, to explore all new themes, struggles, characters, and settings, all while maintaining the elements of my universes that I love most, that I believe make my writing and stories unique: the Star-Shapers, Leviathans, and a single, interconnected supercontinent.
What Comes Next?
I have many ideas for my next book, but one has emerged and banished the rest to the back of the line. This will mark my 10th novel. A milestone? Certainly. One celebrated? Certainly not yet. I have begun a document for said novel, and notes and ideas are being laid out at the time of my writing this. This one I am terribly excited for, as I mean for it to be the first one I pitch to agents in order to seek representation for trad publishing. I will get it to hit their word limits—I’m telling myself this more so than you—and I mean for it to be as much a horror as it is a fantasy, where normally my writing tends to lean more fantasy with horror elements. This one I intend to do my best to have it land somewhere more of a 50/50, horror and fantasy. And this one, this one I cannot wait for you to meet the main character of. Will they horrify you? Or will they leave you enchanted, feeling whisked away to a world without computers or cars, wifi or wii? Only time, and a whole lot of hard work—and luck—on my end, will the answer be revealed.
As I am one to so often say when writing to you, I thank you for your time, salacious wishes and Lightless kisses.
JMB
