There have been a few questions posted as to when the fourth book of the Black Knight Chronicles will be out (tentatively titled Paint it Black, subject to change at any moment).
The honest answer is…I don’t know. Working with a publisher is a different beast, y’all. For the first time it’s not just my book that somebody (me) is thinking about. They’ve got a calendar, and I know Book 4 is on there, but I don’t know what the release date looks like. I know when my first draft is due (March 31). And I think that I’ll make that deadline, but it’ll be tight. I can already tell that this book will be a little darker, probably a bit longer, and will feature all your favorite characters from the first three books. I’m at around 20,000 words right now, or about 1/3 of the way through a typical Black Knight Chronicles book. And I’m not sure I’m more than 1/4 of the way through the story, so that makes me think it might run longer. But I’ve been wrong before. I thought the same thing about Knight Moves, and it ended up shorter. I’m learning a lot working with a developmental editor for the first time. She’s kicking my ass about plotting and making sure everything paces out right, that I lay the groundwork for things early in the book that I want to use later in the book, and stuff like that. So I’m getting everything out of the traditional publishing process that I’d hoped for so far. Now for the money truck to back up to my door…
But I don’t know when Book 4 will drop, and as soon as I know something, I’ll let you guys know.
What I do know is that we’ll have a new Bubba story each month (on average, I might have to double-dip in March to make up for February), and sometime in the spring we’ll have the Cindy Slaughter novel/novella. I can’t tell how long it’s going to be yet. I’m at 20,000 words in that one and have just gotten to the start of Act 2, so it might end up being a full-blown novel as well.
Then this summer I’ll have Book 2 of Return to Eden, I promise. I think that series is going to be a one book per year kinda thing, though, so it might be 2013 before I wrap it all up.
Book 5 of Black Knight Chronicles is due to Bell Bridge the end of September, so that’ll take up the summer to write, along with the Bubba stories, and I might work on Book 3 of Return to Eden when I finish it, or I might hammer on another project or two that I’ve been kicking around in the back of my head.
So while I don’t know when you’ll see the next Black Knight book, I know there will be a Bubba story this month (or two next month, I promise), the Cindy Slaughter book late spring, Return to Eden 2 in the summer, and more Bubba stories to keep you laughing at my gun porn all year round. A few people have asked if Bubba is going to get his own novel, and the answer for now is “no.” Bubba’s a fun diversion between books, and a way to blow off steam, but I haven’t built enough backstory yet for him to get his own novel. It might happen, but almost certainly not in 2012. There might be a Bubba origin story next year, but we’ll see how I feel about the Cindy Slaughter book when it’s done, and whether or not I want to play around in that universe any more.
So there’s a little ramble on what I’m working on. Currently two books at the same time, which is working well, but I don’t think I want to try to hop between three. That’s why there might not be a February Bubba story, but I’ll get back on track someday, I promise. Like in a couple weeks when I quit the day job!
In other news, I’ve decided to open Falstaff Books up to other authors. Currently I’m looking at working with playwrights, but that might broaden to general fiction writers in the future.
