With the Isles erupting into open war, an undying blade chooses a side.
The War of Winds continues The Seven Isles fantasy series, releasing this week in print and ebook. Jay's going to be working on the audio versions of this series later this year too, which promises to be amazing. There's one book left in this storyline, which I'm well into, and is likely to come out this fall, and I'm already having too much fun with it.
Any author who says they don't like the big, climactic moments is lying, and this final volume is where everything crashes together.
Of course, it's nice to write all these scenes in the beautiful Wisconsin summers (hoping, of course, those Canadian wildfires calm down this year). If there's a great reason to live in the Midwest US, it's these pleasant days of sun in the 70's, with the breeze and the chirping birds.
If you've stopped by the YouTube channel, you've probably noticed I'm splitting time between a few projects, an attempt to mesh the writing with what works better for my weird mind: namely, it's easier for me to hop between projects than just plunge ahead on a single one at a time. I'm serializing some of these stories on YouTube, and they'll be put into proper book form and released as such when they arrive, so no worries if you're not a fan of that audio format - just know there's more stories on the way.
What I'm Working On:
Of the various projects, I'm enjoying Hope's Hollow, which is another fantasy, but of a more irreverent form. We're talking wild magic, sinister plots, and hopeful heroes thrown in way over their heads. You can listen to the first few parts over on the YouTube channel, but expect to get the first book in this series by summer's end.
What I'm Watching:
We're diving into X-Men '97 over here and it's a great, albeit casual time. As a remix and continuation of the bizarre but endearing nineties cartoon (so much time travel, my goodness), this revival so far nails all the same notes. It's a bit jarring to watch something dedicated to introducing and wrapping up a major plot within a half-hour run-time, but getting to spend time with these characters is great fun.
What I'm Reading:
Emperor of Rome, by Mary Beard, is my here-and-there pick-up of the moment. I snatch pages while the kiddos are occupied, as it's easier to do that with nonfiction than an immersive fantasy, though what's described here comes pretty darn close. Unlike her first book in this realm, SPQR (also fascinating), this is more a description of what it was like to live as a Roman emperor, and the takeaway so far is that while life back then was pretty darn terrible for most people, it was obscenely terrible for the wealthiest, most powerful in society. Incredible parties mixed with a constant threat of assassination . . . it's a ride.
And that's about it for this week's newsletter. Short and sweet, because hey, there's a lot of writing left to do, and these characters are bugging me.
Thanks, as ever, for reading, and have a wonderful weekend!
~Adam
