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It’s that time of the year again. Time to dust off the lanyard and hoist the black flag, because we’re going to Libertycon! (probably)

This year’s schedule is packed. I’m busy from the moment the con opens at 1:00PM Friday afternoon until closing ceremonies on Sunday. I will be out and about like a madman and hopefully will be able to see everyone I plan on seeing.

If you see Chris Smith and I with out heads together talking and taking notes, please leave us be. We have a book due soon and, uh, we kinda sorta have a rough outline. Of the third act.

Without further ado, here is my schedule for Libertycon XXXI. My comments and personal feelings follow in italics for those of you here for the first time.

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Sometimes when I’m at work I lose track of days. It’s not really surprising when I think it’s a Saturday and I realize no, it’s a Wednesday.

….today is still Tuesday, yeah?

Wrote quite a goodly chunk on Deathlords today. I’m really feeling it right now and seeds of the fabled plot crop I planted in Wraithkin are finally coming to fruition. Plus, planting more seeds for later use. I’m devious like that.

Sales for Darkling are doing quite well. I’m not upset with the steady numbers, though (naturally) I wish it could be higher. The reviews are low, but I attribute that to slower paced readers (if a book takes longer than a day for me it must be really long or boring). Still, if Darkling can have as many reviews as Wraithkin and keep the 5 star overall rating it currently has, I’d be very pleased.

Darkling – Book 2 of the Kin Wars Saga

13 days and counting for Darkling‘s release. I’m excited.

I’ve taken to calling fans of the Kin Wars Saga “Kinions”. I’m clever like that. Book 3 of the series, Deathlords, is still motoring along. I’m fixing a few problems in the early goings of the book while continuing some of the more exciting bits later. I’m also having to go back and plant a few seeds for the next few books in the series. Not a huge issue, really, just really time consuming due to trying to figure out where the seed should go, and have it somewhere which doesn’t interrupt the flow of the story. I hate when I info dump, so it’s a process.

I’m no longer a regular contributor over at Mad Genius Club. It’s not because of any bad reason or anything the wonderful people there have done. It’s just that between work, home stuff, and writing multiple novels simultaneously, I look at the calendar half the time and say “Crap, last week was my day at MGC. Damn… they’re gonna kill me.” They’ve been exceedingly patient with me and not gotten upset when I fail to post something, so I figured that removing myself from being a regular contributor would make it easier on all. Now, I’ll still throw up a guest post once in a while, but besides this blog I’m going to be focusing on the aforementioned necessities.

Tomorrow is Easter. I’ll be getting up at 0430 to go with the boys up the hill for a sunrise service. We’ll then eat breakfast and hike back down the hill. It’ll be about a 3 miles hike round trip. I’m looking forward to the service. The hike? Not as much, but that’s primarily because of my knee and foot issues. I haven’t been up the hill in a few months, and never that early in the morning, so I think that the end of the hike will be worth the difficult journey.

All journeys in life have their good moments and difficult ones. Oftentimes we get so focused on the negative that we forget to look for the good. It’s hard to see the good, however, when everyone shows you only the bad. I know I’m guilty of doing it, and I know I should try harder to not be so negative at times.

Perhaps one day I’ll finally be able to focus on all aspects of the journey, both good and bad, and then will have the strength to push past the negativity to embrace everything positive.

My interview with SF Shenanigans went live yesterday. Had a lot of fun with JR and Chris as we discussed the new subgenre of LitRPG and how The Warp falls into that category. We also discussed early influences and how I totally fanboi’d Timothy Zahn the first time I met him.

Interview here

Got an email from another publisher this past week explaining that the next anthology I’m in, Sha’Daa: Toys, is either going to come out at the end of March or mid-April. This is great actually, since mid-April is the same time that Darkling will be released. One week, two books… haven’t done that since September of last year.

Still crushing it on Deathlords. This book is going to be a little slower paced as it goes, but I think that it’s a good change as our intrepid heroes and heroines have the suffer from the consequences of their actions, both good and bad. From there it’s Book 4, which I’m still deciding what the title is. Right now it’s between two different names, and whichever one isn’t chosen will be Book 5.

Yes, I’ve plotted for nine books in the series.

Still writing, still forgetting to update the website regularly.

Deathlords is currently just over 50% complete. I had to go back and delete some stuff due to it simply not working, but the goal of having it done and turned in by April 30 is good. I estimate getting it to the First Readers by April 10th. Then I’ll take a break from the Kin Wars Saga to work on a project with collaborator Christopher L. Smith, which is set in Mark Wandrey and Chris Kennedy’s Four Horsemen Universe. We don’t have a work-in-progress title yet but it encompasses both of our short stories from A Fistful of Credits and The Good, The Bad, and The Merc. Good stuff.

BASKETBALL SEASON IS OVER!!! As much fun as it was this season, it was exhausting. We participated in an end of the season tournament in Summersville, West Virginia. We went in as the #2 seed and finished in second place. Two of my players finished 1-2 in the dunk contest and another boy finished in 2nd for the three point shootout. One was named to the All-Tournament 2nd Team, while two were named to the All-Tournament First Team. Our leading scorer for the season was named Tournament MVP by the broadcasting company, which was pretty cool. As usual the crowd was fully on our side and though we lost in the final game, we gave the champs a scare they won’t forget. Best part? Our leading scorer is up for Player of the Year for the region of Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia. I’m hoping it leads to bigger and better things for the graduating senior.

Next year is going to be interesting, since we’re going to have to go small and simply out-shoot the other teams. Given how… poorly we shot the three ball this season, that’s either going to be amazing or amazingly bad. I have faith in the guys, especially since the majority of them are currently freshmen and sophomores. I think they’ll be fine if they have a little confidence in themselves, something that they lacked at times this season. Still, finishing the season with a 12-13 win/loss record isn’t bad at all. Next year our goal is 15 wins.

I was recently featured by my workplace on their Facebook page while talking to the 10th grade English class about being a writer. The kids weren’t too interested in first (they see me all the time so it wasn’t as if they were getting some stranger, so the awe factor was a little low) but they did become interested when I told them about some other authors I know and how well they’re doing, primarily John Ringo and Larry Correia. The “money” factor definitely got their attention. I told them that success like that was not common but they didn’t seem to care. One of the boys suggested later that a successful writer is like a successful rapper. Never thought of it like that before but there are some parallels. Granted, I don’t think writers ever really get into drive-by shootings, but there are some similarities in structuring a career and “getting a big break” from hard work and constantly honing your craft.

Don’t forget: Darkling, the sequel to Wraithkin, will be out on April 13, 2018. Make sure you leave a review when you finish the book! This is an intense and emotional roller coaster filled with mayhem, death, fights, love, loyalty, and most importantly, family ties.

Darkling – Book 2 of the Kin Wars Saga

I just got over some viral infection (yay!) so things have been slow around at Casa Cordova these past few weeks. I am definitely looking forward to the release of Darkling on April 13, 2018. I am also still hard at work on Deathlords, which is looking more and more like a Libertycon 31 release (June 29-July 1, 2018) if I can get it turned in on time. Considering I finally worked past the last issue of the book last night while watching TV (thank you Altered Carbon) I think the self-imposed deadline will definitely be met.

I heard that Sha’Daa: Toys will be coming out around Libertycon 31 as well. Two books in one weekend? Exciting! On top of that I just submitted a proposal for another short story for a national bestselling series that I’m waiting to hear back from. Positive opinion of the idea from the editor so far, but I need to write it soon.

Did an interview for a podcast on Friday. Not sure when it goes live, but when it does you’ll hear about it. We spoke about LitRPG and the rise of the subgenre (spoiler bit: I had never heard of it until I was approached, then realized later that I wrote it).

Basketball team currently sits at 9-11, which isn’t horrible. It should be 12-8 though, potentially even 14-6 due to some losses that shouldn’t have happened. We have a massive tournament this coming weekend (Mar 2-3) in West Virginia that will end our season, win or lose. Our goal is to walk out holding the giant championship trophy. If we can do it, well, I wouldn’t be shocked. We are a very talented team that just needs more time together. Since I’m only graduating two seniors, that looks great. The downside is that one of the seniors is about 50% of our offense.

Other than that, not a whole lot going on right now.