Writing

It’s been a little while since my last update concerning the progress of Epic 6: The Devil You Don’t, so I wanted to give you guys the latest news about the series’ next installment! The short answer is, it’s coming along. Nicely. But there’s still some work left to do.

Now for the long answer.

E6 has been a challenge for more reasons than one, not the least of which is the life stage that it’s popped up in. In my last blog entry, I discussed my growing role as a father of three sons, which is basically a job that no one can prepare you for. It’s wonderful, but it’s also exhausting, and when your time suddenly becomes as limited as it can be when raising children, then some things just have to give. Writing doesn’t pay my bills, so it had to give. Understand, though, that “gave” doesn’t mean “stopped.” It just needed to descend a bit on my list of life’s priorities, at least temporarily.

You see, I needed some time to learn how to find that fine, fine balance between being a responsible husband and father and being an author. Writing is hard. Okay, let me rephrase that. Good writing is hard. You’re tapping into your every inner emotion: excitement, anger, love, hatred, passion, desire, disgust, sorrow, mourning, amusement…the list goes on and on for as many characters and emotions as you’re trying to write. If I’m writing an angry Scott Remington, it’s not enough that I write about an angry Scott Remington. I need to write as if I am an angry Scott Remington. If I’m writing a brooding Esther Brooking, I need to write as if I am a brooding Esther Brooking. I’m not going to write about Esther while listening to this. No, I’m going straight for Ciara’s cover of Paint it, Black. You can apply that to every character who gets their own moment in a given book. Becan, Svetlana, Antipov, Archer, Tauthinilaas, Tiffany, Natalie, Jayden, Yuri. Add that all together, and that’s a lot of tapping into. The point is this: writing, at least for me, is extremely emotionally taxing. I have to prepare for it emotionally, execute it emotionally, then find a way down from wherever it’s left me. Let’s face it, Epic will never be confused for a feel-good story. There’s a lot of high stress and bottoming out in this beast.

What this all means for me is that I can’t “just write.” I’ve never been able to “just write.” Much like one takes a bite of raw ginger to cleanse the palette before eating sushi, I need my internal moment of zen before stepping onto this emotional battlefield I’ve created. I can’t write when I’m not at peace with that clean slate to build upon. And with three boys aged six-and-under running amok around the house, peace has become quite the rare commodity! I can’t tell you how many times my wife and I look at each other during the course of the day as if we’re both thinking, “My God, we live in a three-ring circus.” My boys bring me more joy than I ever thought possible. They also occasionally make my eyelids twitch!

Much of my focus lately has been learning to 1) take advantage of what little time I do have, and 2) physically remove myself from the chaos when possible or necessary. I want to give my wife major props for #2, because there have been many times when she’s said, “Lee, I’ve got this, go to the coffee house and write.” She’s amazing, I love her to death, and one day I’m going to surprise her with a trip to Hawaii—maybe even by herself, if she wants! Slowly but surely, I’m learning to find that balance to make writing an active part of my life without it being a detriment in any way, shape, or form to my role as hubs/daddy.

Fast forward to right now, and I have a routine that’s finally working. I write 10,000 words per week. It doesn’t matter how they come. In an “ideal” week, that might mean 1,500 each day with one “cheat day” of 1,000 words. But it also means that if I crush it for a couple of days and write past my quota, I can earn myself a day or two off. There are a lot of writers out there who would scoff at a 10,000-words-per-week schedule. Well, good for them. This is me, and this is what’s working at the stage of life I’m in right now. To each their own, as God made them.

So let’s take all of the above and apply it to the reason you probably decided to read the “long answer” in the first place! As it stands now, E6 is 121,500 words in length (somewhere between DOD and Hero). My guess—and it purely is just a guess—is that E6 is going to fall somewhere around the 200k-215k range (for reference purposes, between TGB and Enemy One). I am currently cranking out 10,000 words per week. The math can be done.

If you’re doing said math, though, resist the temptation to say, “this means Lee will be done in ‘X’ weeks!” It does not. First and foremost, E6 may end up being longer than I think. I don’t have a hard word count minimum or maximum. It’ll be finished when it’s the right time to be finished. I am also going to do, at minimum, two complete read-throughs before it goes into the hands of my editor, which may mean adding a scene/chapter or two if the need is there. I will then do, at minimum, two complete read-throughs when it returns from my editor. I am also going to re-read some of the prior books to ensure that there’s nothing I’m overlooking or leaving out/unaddressed. These won’t be fun read-throughs. These will be deep dives meant to maintain the harmony of the octology in the stage it’s currently in. I would implore you during this remaining stretch not to think, “man, this is taking forever,” but rather, “man, Lee really cares about getting this right.” I have never written a book that I’m not proud of. E6 will not be the first. May there never be a first!

The Devil You Don’t is an amazing book that has been very challenging to write for a variety of reasons. My aim is for you to never see those challenges while you’re reading it. The book you’re going to read will be a polished, red sports car. This blog entry is a peek into the garage with the car halfway built.

I’m going to be very transparent about this process as things continue to move along. I want you guys to know where I’m at, where things stand, and what’s happening. My hope is that, maybe, you as the reader might find that insight a little fun. But really, it’s being done to show you that your author is working hard. He is.

Your patience will be rewarded.

I look forward to sharing the stories of Svetlana, Natalie, Esther, and Tiffany with you. These are four outstanding women who are worthy of a book to call their own. They’re going to bring it.

Until the next update,

-LS

 

Epic faithful, the wait is finally coming to an end. In Summer of 2016 (month TBD), the most daunting book in the Epic series, Enemy One, will see the light of day.

Fans, you have been waiting for this a very long time. You have been patient with me while I battled cancer and experienced the birth of two sons. You waited for me to get my head right, then my heart right, as I wrestled this story from its inception to its end. Enough words in Enemy One were rewritten and left on the cutting-room floor to create a whole other installment. After a two-year personal hiatus from writing, you all deserved the very best I could give. Enemy One is the very best.

Between now and release, I will be teasing various aspects of Epic’s fifth installment. But for now – for tonight – enjoy that something new is on the horizon. Your comrades are coming back.

Thank you for praying for me. Thank you for sticking with me. It’s almost time.

Vivat 14,

– LS

It’s been a little while since I’ve given an update on things in general, so a post like this is overdue. Anyone who keeps up with me at all knows I don’t blog terribly often, but when I do, I try to give my entries a little substance. My aim with this entry is to provide a little insight into the many things I have on my literary plate.

Firstly, and what I’m sure most people are curious about, is Enemy One, Epic’s fifth installment. Progress on the book is going very well, as it’s currently Outlaw Trigger length but still with a ways to go. Though my original plan was for this to be a book somewhat longer than the first two, I was hoping to keep it under the lengths of Hero and TGB. Being as far into the book as I currently am, that may or may not be the case.

Enemy One is, without a doubt, the most difficult book I’ve ever attempted to write. One of the biggest challenges has been that, to be perfectly honest, it hasn’t even been the book that I’d expected it to be. TGB ended on a fast note, leading me to assume that book five would pick up with that same tempo. In actuality, the Enemy One experience has been quite the opposite. The more I wrote, the more it occurred to me that the natural transition from the frenetic conclusion of book four was the literary equivalent of a long, deep breath. Much needed to be digested, both by the reader and by the crew of the Fourteenth. An attempt was made to maintain E4’s action-heavy finale’s pace, but it just didn’t feel “right.” So I did what I felt was best, discarded any preconceived notions of what I felt readers expected, and just wrote the way the story asked to be written. In my experience, writing bears the best fruit when stories are given free reign to direct themselves, with me acting merely as a mediator between thought and keyboard. I think this approach as served Enemy One well. The tagline of “Run” still applies. But the concept of running is multifaceted, not simply relegated to literally running through city streets firing assault rifles. A story that would simply be that would be style over substance. As in all Epic books, there are action sets sprinkled throughout book five. They just have a purpose beyond being “action for the sake of action.”

Epic 5 is going to be different. I’m well aware of the notoriety of fifth installments (Rocky 5, Star Trek 5, etc.). Enemy One could very easily fall into the “weak link” category of the series if it were forced into the same mold that was used for TGB. Because of this, the approach has had to be different – and careful. There is a story to continue, but Enemy One can’t be The Glorious Becoming Part II. It has to stand on its own, with its own merits, its own uniqueness, and its own pacing. What has this led to? A book that is far deeper, and far more psychological, than I ever could have anticipated. It has the potential to be the most thought-provoking installment in the entire series. The first four books in Epic are the intro. The last three are the journey to finality. It’s Enemy One‘s job to link them together. If done the right way, this transitional book can be mesmerizing. Don’t ask me for a release date. I’m writing every day, but the editing process for this book will be longer than most. It’ll be done “when it’s done.” I anticipate that being in 2015. As always, bear with me.

Epic is not all that I’m working on! I’m actually juggling a whopping five writing projects right now (Enemy One included), meaning that there will soon be some non-Epic lit out there by yours truly.

One of these projects, I can’t talk about yet. But it’s big. That’s all you get.

I’m also in the beginning stages of a second novel series that I can’t talk about too much at this point, only to say that it’s a major change of pace for me and something I’ve wanted to get to for a very long time.

Then, there’s a story I’m working on that…look, I’m just gonna be honest. It’s chick-lit. My wife was watching a Hallmark movie one day, I plopped down on the sofa, got sucked in for a bit, then made the dreaded statement, “You know what kind of story I bet this channel would love? Something about…” As it turned out, the idea was good. Really good. “I have to do it now” good. So now I’m stuck. All I can say is that if I told you the idea, too, you’d be like, “dude…yeah…that one’s a winner.” I hate chick-lit. Nicholas Sparks is my bane. This will be interesting!

The last item I’m juggling is purely conceptual. It’s about gangster rap and vegetables. There’s really not much more to say.

And so those are the goings-on as of 2015! Oh, and we’re having another baby. This is gonna be one heck of a year!

I’ll write more as the above things develop. In the meantime, I’ll be cranking out Enemy One and the many other things I’ve got on the burners. Stay tuned, people!

-LS

Of all the official “announcement” type messages I’ve relayed to the fan base, this may be the one closest to my heart as it concerns the Epic community. This is why this particular message is going across all platforms: the blog, the mailing list, the forum mailing list, Facebook, Twitter, deviantART…everything. For me, and for Epic, this is as important as it gets!

As the header indicates, Chapter Zero of Epic 5: Enemy One, has been released, and you can read it on the Epic Universe Forums. You can find the very thread containing it right here. You’ve been patient enough with me as I’ve dealt with life and health issues; you don’t need to wait for something new any longer, even if a finished fifth novel is still a little ways away (mid-2015). But while I do want to talk about Chapter Zero, there’s something much more critical to Epic that I want to talk about. That something is the forum hub itself.

Quite simply, the reason Chapter Zero has been released there is because I want Epic’s fan base to go there. I want you to see what the forums are about. I want you to see what they can become – what they need to become – for Epic to become the expansive universe it was always intended to be. Bar none, the most important aspect of anything worth being built is the aspect of community. It’s getting people together. Talking, laughing, debating…being there, sharing a sense of commonality in something they all enjoy. I could write four hundred novels, but without you, both the singular and collective, it’s a fruitless labor. The Epic Universe Forums were made for you.

Though there have always been sporadic posts here and there on the forums, on most days, the waters are calm and the visitors few. If life is full of trial and error, my experience in building up the forum community has been mostly the latter. I’ve over-designed it. I’ve underused it on a personal level. I’ve relied more on hoping its very existence would draw users in rather than giving them solid reasons to visit and engaging them when they did. All of those failings are on me. I’m ready to overcome them.

The design of the forum has been simplified. Rather than a section dedicated to each novel, you’ll simply find one for all of them: The Epic Octalogy, dedicated to discussing the eight books that will comprise Epic’s core series. Beneath the Epic section, you’ll find the Forum’s Off-Topic, for anything and everything not related to Epic. Talk sports, talk politics, talk current movies, games, or events. It doesn’t matter. Be heard! I’ve always felt, and I still do, that it only takes ten consistently active forum members to keep a place relevant. I want you to be one of those ten! Check in, start up a convo, whether in Epic or Off-Topic, and light that place up. If you’re not up for starting a new thread just yet, check out some of the many that are already there. Toss in your two cents! We want to hear it!

If you’ve tried to plug into the forums already and simply found a lack of new Epic topics to discuss, rest assured – the speed at which books are being written is picking up. Despite the long span of time since The Glorious Becoming, Enemy One is being written right now at a record pace. The plan is to release a new installment every one to one-and-a-half years, which would wrap the core series by 2019-2020. That’s not far away!

Which brings us to Chapter Zero of Enemy One!

You guys have waited long enough for something new to talk about. Chapter Zero will definitely give you reason to talk. Of all the questions I’ve received from fans after they’ve read The Glorious Becoming, the most numerous (and enthusiastic) begin with, “What happened to…?” That’s what Chapter Zero is all about.

Obligatory warning: this is Chapter Zero in draft form, untouched by an editor. The final version is bound to have small changes here and there. But these won’t be story changes. They’ll be a word here, a word there, a grammar correction, and a rephrased sentence or two. Any differences you’d notice in the final version of Enemy One would be minor and of no plot-related consequence. I’m confident enough in it to share it early. Get ready, because the game is changing!

I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts in some forum posts! Let’s get this place rocking.

 

-Lee