I’m happy to report that I have officially crossed the Rubicon on the first draft of The Divine Heretic Book 2: What Lies Between. The manuscript is about 50% finished, and while I’m leaving some sections in need of hefty revision, I think it’s best at this stage to keep the forward momentum going until I reach “The End.”

Given the calendar, I will likely have to pause from this draft at some point to get a few closer releases polished up and fit for printing. Tales of Ciel Book 2: Ophiuchus Flinched still needs a dash of proofreading and final art before I can get it off to the printer and listed for its February 3 release. Book 3: The Mark of Cain is almost polished, but will require about a week of concentrated attention to tie the manuscript up in a neat little bow and ship it off for a proofread. The concluding book in the first trilogy of the Tales of Ciel is currently slated for publication on April 21, and while that sounds far off, it’s going to come up quickly. In a perfect world, I’ll have that one with the printer by the middle of January, but I suspect timing is going to be tight with the art.

So, here’s my blue-sky prediction: By the middle of January, both Ardent Wings on Jealous Skies and Seven Days of Mercy for the Apostatic Priest will be published and out in the world. Ophiuchus Flinched and The Mark of Cain will be out of my hands and available for pre-order. I’ll also have a finished first draft of What Lies Between that may or may not be ready to show to a developmental editor. Pending the state of that draft, I plan to pivot from fantasy to sci-fi and descend into the universe of The Compact Cycle. 

Book 1: The Politics of Fear is currently slated for release on June 9. I would love to have that manuscript polished and proofread by February 9, giving me a 5-month lead to prep for publication. I readily admit that it is an ambitious timeline, and there is a small chance the release will slip to July, but I hope not. I plan to move seamlessly from The Politics of Fear into the first draft of Book 2: The Kakistocracy of Flagging Need, which currently exists in embryonic form. Under the best conditions, that draft will take 6-8 months.

But Z.! You can bang out a draft of a Ciel or Divine Heretic book in 8-12 weeks? Why so lazy all of a sudden?

Not all books are created equal. Compact Cycle novels run much longer, with many overlapping storylines and POVs to juggle. I’ll likely be batting drafts of What Lies Between back and forth with editors in tandem with the work on Kakistocracy, but I really do need to immerse myself in the Compact to do it justice. 

The deeper I try to look into my crystal ball, the foggier the images become. The process outlined above likely takes me into Fall 2026. At that point, I’ll be prepping our fourth and final launch series, Shattered, for its alleged November debut. I’ll also be thinking ahead to the second trilogy in the Tales of Ciel, as well as Books 3 and 4 in The Divine Heretic. Those 5 titles, plus Kakistocracy, plus Shattered Book 2 will round out our 2027 publishing calendar. I may have a few surprises threaded between these major releases, but it’s too early to tip my hat on those…