Novel Plans Archives - Annie Bellet

Archive for the ‘Novel Plans’ Category

Happy New Year & Update!

I sent a very long-winded email to my newsletter, but I’ll post a shorter version here: I went through a lot of personal stuff in 2019 including finally facing and working on recovering from my life-long eating disorder (I’m still in recovery, it’s a process, but it is getting easier and I feel more “me” than I have in a long, long time). This meant that in 2019 I did a lot of work that was beneath the surface of what people see, both personally and professionally. I have a lot of novels mostly drafted and so the good news is that in 2020, you all are going to see the results of that labor. Plus I have some new systems in place that should help me be more consistent with my writing going forward (the biggest of these is a new office *outside* the home!).

Book 10 is a bit progressed from the last update but still needs a little work, however I’m somewhat comfortable saying end of this month or sometime early Feb for it given what is left to do. So we’ll open the new year with a new book soon(tm)!

The other cool news is that I have a release date and pre-order links for the NEXT thing, which is a spin-off series featuring Alek’s sister Kira. You might remember her from Thicker than Blood, but you’ll never forget her after you read Bad Moon on the Rise, coming in October this year. Here’s the pre-order links: For Kindle click HERE. For everywhere else click HERE. And here’s the amazing cover, shot and designed by Gene Mollica:

As you can see, these books will be a bit different from Jade’s story, but no less kick-ass I promise (actually more ass-kicking cause Kira doesn’t really see violence as a problem since she’s an apex predator and all). Kira’s books will also be about twice as long as Jade’s, though I’m planning the series to run three or four books, depending how it shakes out, so if you prefer meatier reads get ready (they’ll still be fast-paced, this is me we are talking about after all).

And in final news, if you liked Avarice, I’m posting chapters of the sequel, Wrath, on my Patreon since my followers chose it. There are also sneak previews of things (like the first chapter of Harper’s Tale!) and full short stories posted there. Come join us and check it out!

I wish you all a happy New Year!

November Update

I know it is November already. Finishing out book 10 and getting final edits done etc is taking a bit longer than planned so I need a couple extra weeks and this is the end of the series so I’m taking all the time I need cause it’s important to me to finish Jade’s story properly. So give me 2-3 weeks before you panic that book 10 isn’t out yet, please 🙂

And I know peeps are sad about the series ending, but please don’t panic about that, either. There will be an epilogue novella showing some stuff after the events of book 10 that will tie into a prequel novella introducing the next series set in the Twenty-Sided world. Plus the very next project on my plate after book 10 is to finish Tribes: Harper’s Tale, which is technically another 20sided book. So I’m not abandoning the world at all and there will be more nerdy, kickass urban fantasy coming.

Because the next series is about Kira, Alek’s sister. Y’all met her briefly in book 6, but just wait til she gets her own stories. It’s going to be a wild ride. 🙂

Where’s Book 9?

ETA: Had a few days of serious pain and wasn’t able to work, sorry. So book 9 will be early next week instead of this week. Thanks for your patience, not much longer to wait, I promise!

(TLDR: Book 9 the 20th or so of March, Book 10 the last week of March)

I know, February is almost over. I could possibly rush edits on River of No Return and get it out by the 28th, but I’m leaning toward not doing that. Books 9 and 10 follow on each other’s heels story-wise (and given that I’ve been writing them simultaneously they will also release close together) and I want to make sure the story continuity and set-up is solid. Which means rushing an edit would be a poor plan.

Which is a really long-winded way of saying my new plan is to release book 9 on the 13th or 14th (depends on upload time at various retailers so I can’t predict exact day) and then release book 10 around the 27th or 28th. I’d reveal the cover for book 10 but it would be spoilery so y’all gotta wait, sorry. It’s shiny and epic af though.

I’m sorry I’ve been so delayed lately, but I’m still rehabing my back injury with no end in sight yet and it means that I can’t work more than a couple hours a day due to factors like constant pain and being unable to sit at my desk (where I do my best, most focused work, sigh) etc. I’m doing what I can and I’m very thankful for everyone’s patience. I’d love to say that my physical therapy is going great and I’ll be 100% any day now, but alas that doesn’t seem to be the case and we’re hoping another couple months will do it.

Again, thank you all for your patience and messages of support. I hope that I’ll be able to get more stories out once I’m healthy again. And hey, the wait is truly almost over, I promise.

Where’s the Book?

Y’all are probably wondering where Harper’s novel is.

The answer… not done. This is the toughest book that I’ve ever attempted for multiple reasons I won’t bore you all with, but I am not going to release it until I’m 100% happy with it. It’s a side novel and working on it won’t delay books 9 and 10 since the story doesn’t relate to those at all except tangentially (it’s purely Harper’s story, after all) so it’ll be done when it is done. I was hoping to release it earlier this month, but again, I’m not happy with the book as it stands and I’m going to re-draft it.

So…that’s the bad news. The good news is that while I’ve been stuck on Harper’s book, I’ve been working on the last two Gryphonpike Chronicles novellas. They are both about 90% right now, just need endings and edits etc so I’m going to release those in early June and that will tie up that series (there will be a full trilogy of novels called Gryphonpike Legends with the same characters out next year, so don’t despair, I’m just finishing up the novella series so we can move on to the novels).

To sum up: Harper’s Tale will be done when it’s done and I can’t make any promises. More GPC novellas coming (two of them!) next month. Books 9 and 10 of 20sided will be out in Sept/October.

Thank you for your patience!

Spring 2017 Update

Here’s a quickie update on what’s hopefully happening this year.

Next book out will be Tribes: Harper’s Tale. I should have it out by end of April or early May, depending on editing time etc.

After that will come Brood Mother (the 5th Gryphonpike Chronicles novella) and then a side novel titled Soft Paw which goes between 20sided books 8 and 9. There will be one more Gryphonpike Chronicles novella which will wrap up that iteration of the series (a trilogy of novels will come in 2018, beginning Gryphonpike Legends). All of that should carry us well into summer with new releases fairly regularly.

Beyond that, my goal this year is to wrap up The Twenty-Sided Sorceress. There will be two more books, books 9 and 10. They are very tied together in terms of what happens with the story, so I will likely delay the release of book 9 until the fall when I can release book 10 within a month or so of book 9. I don’t want to leave readers on a cliff with a big wait (again, mwahahahaha*cries*).

Ending a series I love so much will be rough, but I have plans for the world beyond that which I’m really excited to explore. There will also be an epilogue for 20sided that will be the prequel of the series to come in the same world.

So I have a ton of plans this year. Health-wise I’m doing much better than I have in three years, so hopefully no derails due to health like in years past. I’m also hoping that after wrapping up 20sided I’ll have a few months to work on the sequel to Avarice and get the Pyrrh books out in the world finally.

So… TLDR is lots of fiction coming for you all in 2017 and I’m excited to be healthier and working regularly again! Cheers.

November 2016 Update

First… some good news! New box set featuring my dark fairytale novel A Heart in Sun and Shadow plus nine other fantasy novels cover multiple sub-genres from epic to urban fantasy. It’s $0.99 for a limited time and also available in Kindle Unlimited to borrow. Get it here.

Other news… next week I’ll be announcing a new Urban Fantasy project I’m super excited about. Just one more week of secrecy and I can finally talk about it, yay!

The recent election here in the USA has some potential real-world impacts on my life that I won’t go into, but I bring it up because one of the immediate ones is that I won’t be releasing Harper’s novel this year for personal reasons. It’s a side novel and doesn’t effect the main plot of The Twenty-Sided Sorceress, so it won’t delay book 8. Harper’s book is just too close to some things in my life right now and I don’t feel like I can finish it properly at this time. Thank you for understanding. I’ll still have Dungeon Crawl out in December. I think we could all use some Jade kicking ass right now.

That’s the news for November. Thank you!

September Update

Finishing up Harper’s book, Tribes, this week. Which means given time needed for edits and formatting etc, odds are it might not come out exactly in September, sorry. Might be the first or second week of October. The print volumes for the first 4 Twenty-Sided Sorceress books are out first week of October, so it’ll be like double bonus? Shiny hardcover 20sided. I am going to hoard ALL the copies.

Tribes has been scary and awesome to write. It’s longer than any 20sided book so far (you peeps asked for longer books, I’m doing my best to deliver while still keeping up action and fast pace that I love so much, hehe), and maybe the nerdiest thing I’ve written, which you know is saying a lot. I’ve only done a little cosplay, so I had to do tons of research for various characters in this. I did almost lose part of a finger (3 stitches!) to making a bunny fur bikini once, but I’m not great at sewing or crafts unless you count painting D&D minis (and I’m only decent-ish at that). Anyway, enough rambling about a book you can’t read for at least 2 more weeks, sorry!

Brood Mother, the last Gryphonpike Chronicles novella (there will be 4 novels, it isn’t the end of GPC just end of novella length GPC) is basically done but again needs edits etc and I set it aside to work on Tribes.

Dungeon Crawl, Book 8 of 20sided, will be out by Christmas/Holidays. I’m not going to give a harder deadline than that until it is done, for obvious reasons.

Also have a couple other crazy projects in the works that I’ll be excited to announce. Tease? Why yes.

So that’s the September update.

Quick Update for August

Working on Harper’s book still. Hoping to have that out in September, so look for it then. Also finishing up the fifth Gryphonpike Chronicles novella, which will be the last novella-length work in that series. After that I’m planning on a novel (working title: Into the North, pub date mid 2017) to bridge Gryphonpike Chronicles over to the trilogy Gryphonpike Legends which will come in 2018 and likely wrap up Killer’s story.

So… the good news is, more books coming soon! And they’ll be longer!

Bad news is not sure I’ll be ready with anything in August. So hopefully two releases (the last GPC novella- Brood Mother, and Tribes: Harper’s Tale) in September. Then book 8 of 20Sided Sorceress should follow in November. Plus the re-release of the awesome hardcover omnibus edition in October.

Lots of good stuff coming, thanks for your patience! Meanwhile, book 2 in The Twenty-Sided Sorceress is on sale at .99 and book 1 is still free, so if you aren’t catching up yet on the series, what you waiting for?

Big Announcement!

I’ve sold the print rights to The Twenty-Sided Sorceress to Saga Press! They will be putting out two collected editions, one with the first four books, one with the books five through seven.

Sorceress comps for realsies

What does that mean for the books? It means you can get them in hardcover or trade paper! It also means that very shortly, the paperback versions of the individual books will disappear. The ebooks are still up and for sale of course and nothing will change there.

For details, see the reveal post on the Barnes&Noble Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog!

To pre-order the first volume (books 1-4 in Level Grind):

Click here for Amazon

Click here for Powell’s

Click here for B&N

To pre-order the second volume (books 5-7 in Boss Fight):

Click here for Amazon

Click here for B&N

Schedule Shift

Well, I *was* going to take more of a break from Twenty-Sided Sorceress and work on a couple Pyrrh novels, but I’ve fallen behind due to a few factors (one of which is this year I’m putting health first instead of work first, sorry). That and, as I sit here finishing up a new Gryphonpike novella which should be live by July or so, Harper won’t stop crawling into my head and telling me all about what happens in her book. I have enough notes about her book now to practically be an outline in and of themselves, ha.

So… I’m pushing Pyrrh off until end of year/X-mas time and going to work on Harper’s book and probably Dungeon Crawl next. Again, no promises on release dates, but I’m loosely aiming for September for at least Tribes (Harper’s novel).

I’m also working on a secret Urban Fantasy collaborative project that I hope I can announce by this fall. It fell into my lap and I think it’s awesome and couldn’t resist saying yes.

So yeah. Once again, plate is full but hey, 20sided sooner than later is good, right? 🙂

Thanks for your patience and all the kind words I’ve been sent about my health. I am super focused on getting as healthy as someone with chronic illness can get so I have more energy and more time to devote to writing kickass books as well as living my life more fully.

More news soon, I hope!

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