Rothfuss, Martin, Rivera?! Nooooooo!!! Must Release Faster!

I solemnly swear that I will hit my initial deadlines at some point. But the question of what makes up a proper work of art when it comes to my novels always eludes an answer for me.

A Murakami quote about how taking more time can be a shortcut stuck out to me this past week, and I realized I could do far better than I had given the effort up to that point.

The positive thing about being independent is that we don’t answer to anyone. So I can change things on the fly as I see fit, but I must balance that with my integrity as well.

To speak plainly, since my art is a secondary income source (and having multiple income streams is always preferred), I had to focus more on the work that pays the bills these past few months and push art to the back burner.

That being said, I want to give my art 100%, not 50%. This means taking extra time.

Music albums might take almost an entire year to finish, you know?

Some books simmer for months and are written over the course of one year.

These things don’t come together overnight, and my standard of lyrical prose that sings must be met.

For this reason, I’m changing things up and restructuring my novels to better fit a grander vision. I don’t want to be a pulp author. I desire to be an artisan author (term not mine).

I think the reason Auminous turned out so well is that I wrote it over years (minus one opinion, anyway).

My artistic integrity must come first, so that means finishing things the right way, not putting out a “mid” product. Editing things to sing and catching typos.

The resulting prose from my efforts of putting in 100% means things are turning out to be far better. Crown of the Orphic Queen is shy of 65,000 words. But it isn’t done cooking yet. The Halloween deadline is damned. The prose needs to breathe.

As much as I don’t want to admit it, I think I’m turning into a Rothfuss and Martin. They’ve got so much perfectionism in their bones that they take several years to come out with just one book. While I don’t want to be that slow, deadlines exist for a reason.

My self-imposed deadlines will from this month forward be sacrosanct. Numinous: The Golden Tunists will come out on time. The next date I’ve set for my next two novels will also be firm, not changing this time.

This is one reason I liked the idea of shadow dropping. A novel just coming out of nowhere can be a pleasant thing. No deadline to worry about because it is ready when it is ready.

I might do pre-orders again in the near future–but for now I think a mix of shadow drops and firm release dates is the way to go.

Anyway, without me rambling too much, here is the first chapter of Crown of the Orphic Queen written the way I intended it to be from the outset.

This novel has much symbolism from the Orphic tradition of Persephone, meaning she’s an active agent and not abducted against her will by Hades. Hades is also a character that is a foil to her, but they fall in love after not liking each other for a spell through the first two acts.

I heard there’s people out there that like that sort of thing ;).

I can’t wait to show the world the story of Seph and Hadrian and their contest of souls in the modern world.