I turned 41 this past weekend, and I’m busier than ever. The paperback of The Shards of Heaven came out a couple weeks ago, its prequel short story “The Temples of the Ark” was released on Thursday (an ebook version will come soon, which I hope you’ll purchase), and the sequel to Shards, The Gates of Hell, comes out in just over a week: November 15th.
So yeah, I’ve been busy.
(Also: let this be a reminder to Pre-order, Boost, and Review them all!)
What’s really on my mind today, though, is one of the other things I’ve been doing. Yesterday, I hit “Send” on the third Shards novel, The Realms of God. My publisher, Tor Books, bought three Shards novels from me, so with this final volume the trilogy will be complete.
It’s a very strange feeling for a multitude of reasons.
Above all, I’m feeling blessed. I had a 3-book contract with one of the largest genre fiction publishers in the world. That’s pretty damn special. There are 1000s of folks out there — many probably far more talented than I am, I suspect — who would kill a darling or two (writer joke!) for such an opportunity. I myself dreamed of it for years. And here I am, looking back on writing not one … but three books for Tor.
I’m blessed, too, for the kindness and encouragement of friends and family. They were there with support long before any contract came my way, and they’ve been there for me through the many twists and turns since. The past two years in which I’ve written first Gates and then Realms have been (to say the least) a crazy roller-coaster of life. I couldn’t have made it through without so much encouragement and time.
It’s also enormously strange to be finishing off the third volume when the second one has yet to be released. There’s not much to be done about that — Tor has very good reason for setting deadlines as they do — but it sure is bizarre to be longing for folks to read this amazing third book … and they won’t even know the amazing things in the second one for another couple of weeks.
Anyway, it’s an odd mixture of feelings to have as one celebrates another circuit around the average star that is our Sun.
Oh, and if you want to get me something, buy a book. Mine or someone else’s, it doesn’t much matter. A reader born is a reader for life.