Four Books: Four Months

Okay people, I am about to declare something crazy. Something completely crazy that I'm going to do.

I was glancing over my books this week and suddenly went, "I really wish I could share my fifth Parabaloni book with my fabulous readers this Christmas, since it’s a Christmas book, and I think they would really like it. But,” I thought, “I have Dreaded King: Reign Falls coming out in October, and a fourth Parabaloni book before Adelie Angst, and November when I’m supposed to write the third Dreaded King book for National Novel Writer’s Month…But then again, that’s just a book a month…”

So, here’s the deal. The crazy, stupid, ridiculous challenge that I’m setting myself. In between all the other wonderful random things I have going in my busy life, I am going to edit and release three books, and write one, in four months. Yep, that’s right. Four books, in four months. And yep, I’m crazy to be considering it. But it’s going to be awesome. Here’s my plan:

September – October 1^st: Reign Falls is going to finish up its overhaul and reach your hands, so you can finally find out what happened to Meagan and Corinth and Charlie as they race away from Yaspur the Hard and his gray-clad assassins. (They do succeed in getting away from him…for a little while, anyway…but not for too long. Though I suppose that’s a bit of a SPOILER so you can ignore it.)

October 2^nd – October 31^st: Solitaire, Parabaloni Novel 4, is getting its overhaul and major editing done. Ever wondered what really happened with Gigan the French sharpshooter’s family? It had to be something major (and therefore interesting) to have completely alienated him from their boisterous presence. And what’s the deal with the neon green hair, anyway?

November 1^st – November 31^st: NaNoWriMo! Another full month given over to the ridiculously crazy task of starting with a blank word document and ending up with a full book. At least in rough draft form. Dreaded King 3 is going to be finally written. I’m so excited to start hammering out all the ideas that have been floating around in my head for the past year! Obviously this one isn’t going to get to your hands for a while yet. But it will begin the process, this November! (Oh, by the way, in case you were wondering, there are going to be 4 Dreaded King books in total; it’s not a series that drags on forever.)

December 1^st – 20^th: Adelie Angst, Parabaloni 5, is going to be edited and out in time for you to shove it in a stocking or under a tree. Filled with penguins and paintings, space ships and snow, tension and teases, this is probably the most streamlined of my Parabaloni novels, as far as getting the plot down on the page with the least amount of distractions. And it is quite a different sort of a plot, let me tell you. I hope you enjoy watching the way your favorite quirky band of spies spends their holiday season.

Therefore, when Christmas day rolls round and you see me with reddened eyes and a slightly fattened stomach, you will know it’s because I have spent the last four months, every second I can snatch from real life, staring at Allen’s screen. (That’s my laptop. In case you had forgotten.)  

This is not going to be an easy task. As my dad just commented, glancing over my shoulder, “This is like NaNoWriMo squared.” So any encouragement you happen to want to send my way would be ecstatically welcomed; and quite possibly snatched up with a stressed-out, maniacal cackle, as I grasp at it like a drowning man grasps a life raft. I am going to be drowning in words. But it’s going to be such an amazing ride. I’m going to learn so much about me. And I hope about you. If I can (yeah, one more thing to write) I’ll be keeping you updated here on my blog. So stay tuned, everybody, and share this around! The more people who know that I’m doing it, the more incentive I’ll have to get it done. And to get it done well, for the glory of God. So comment on my blog posts, hit the share button on this, like my Facebook page to keep up with the process…

And let’s do this thing.