First and most important: Academy book updates. 🙂

There’s some update on Academy books, but it’s kind of spoiler-y down below. Important points to note that isn’t spoiler-y: It is taking a while, yes. I’m basically writing three books at once at the moment. It is taking a while, especially a few things that have popped up, which I talk about in a minute here.

For those who don’t want spoilers (at the end of this blog post so don’t read past where it says potential spoilers if you don’t want to know), just know yes I’m working on it, but because it’s essentially plotting and writing three books at the same time, it’s taking a while. The good news is, when they are ready, they’ll be ready really close to one another. So we’ll have this long period of me finishing these but then once they are done, it’ll be bam, bam, bam. Released really quickly. Your extended patience is very much appreciated.

If you want the details on that, then read the last bit at the end of this blog post. I’ve other news in the meantime even for non spoiler people if you’re interested in that. 🙂 You should be safe enough though, it’s not totally spoiler-y. Just a few details for people who might like to know.

AIW Progress Update

I’ve made a few changes as to how I’m going to deliver stories this time.

I’ll spare my issues of figuring out systems and dealing with advertising. It’s boring and you really won’t care to hear it. 🙂 A bunch of things just weren’t going to work.

So I was trying different things but I’m at the point where I was doing more research and trying stuff than actually…you know…writing.

So I threw out the plans and I’m just going to WattPad it for now. 🙂 Let’s keep it simple.

If you haven’t seen my profile over there, (https://www.wattpad.com/user/clstone) there are already a couple of stories uploaded already. You’ll see more by me getting loaded there soon. (You’ll see first chapters to Introductions and Thief over there, too.)

Those WattPad stories, once the drafts are done, will stay up until I complete final chapters. Once it’s done, I’ll leave it up but I’ll edit the chapters and get them done up nice and pretty for publishing at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, etc.

You’ll still get notices and updates via the newsletter and other areas. (Facebook/Pinterest, etc.)

I may try doing some things with Kindle Unlimited later on with some stories as an experiment but we’ll see.

For now though, if you enjoyed AIW, come read at WattPad. You’ll get updates via the newsletter for whatever was added that week plus any news from me if any.

DETAILS ON ACADEMY BOOKS, SOME SPOILERS MAYBE SHOW UP BELOW

So I don’t normally talk about health issues or anything of a personal nature much on my end, but for the past year or so, I’ve been getting migraines off and on. I hesitate to say migraines because I feel like people with actual migraines have it much worse with being down for a week and ill.

For myself, the headaches only last for a full day, maybe carrying into two days. I don’t get as bad as symptoms other people get or anything. It’s just a headache so bad I can’t do anything else. The problem comes into, obviously those migraine days, those I’m down for the count, but the medicine I take to help those, I am foggy brained for a day or so following each episode.

I’ve done what I can to help with the headaches. I’ve worked on my diet, getting in more exercise, made sure it wasn’t eye strain, stopped sitting for so long at the desk hunched over words and notebooks trying to sort my plots. I’ve had to make myself take time off away from the screen more, and it does seem to help.

So it’s made progress a bit slower for Academy books because they are SO heavily detailed with intricate plots. And for Tempest, Unsung Requiem, etc. and actually all the books moving forward, they are very intricate and woven into each other, that it takes a lot of plotting and figuring out what goes where. It doesn’t help that I scrapped the first quarter of Scarab Beetle when I realized it needed to be different. So I’ve been back and forth on fixing that and moving forward.

The Ghost Bird team, the Scarab Beetle team and other stories are so involved that it just takes time. And headaches I’ve been getting have been stretching that time out. :/ And I apologize for the time it takes and for creating a mega plot of interwoven stories but these are stories I really love and I basically write my heart into them, so I want them to be very good, stories I want to re-read when I’m 100 years old because I know I wrote my favorite things into them.

Just to touch on an example, while the current timeline for Ghost Bird and Scarab Beetle are different, you’re going to see strong hints as to things that deal with Ghost Bird, including characters from Ghost Bird integrating into Scarab Beetle and vice versa, especially in these upcoming three books. (Tempest, Unsung Requiem, the Scarab Beetle book after that)

And yes, even main characters, some of your favorites, are showing up for good portions in each of the stories.

You won’t have to read both series to understand what’s going on if you only like Ghost Bird or Scarab Beetle, but for those who read both, you’ll see…interesting things in each. And you’ll continue to see these interesting woven plots going forward.

Don’t worry, we’ll get through this together. I still suspect the three books (at least two this year and one early next, they’ll get spread out a little bit just so beta readers / editors / proofreaders aren’t rushed, etc.) will be out this year. You’ll know when I know. If you see people wondering why things are taking a long time, feel free to point this post out, or reiterate what’s said here. If you see me tinkering with other stories, it’s because I had them already done anyway (I had a lot just waiting around that just needed a revision or just story starts and I want to work on those.) and just wanted to get them out. Or I had the free time but not the brain power to dive into intricate plot for Academy stories so I start messing with them, etc. I tend to do the AIW stuff on weekends or when I’ve had the headache but the medicine made my brain foggy and it’s too hard to think of the Academy plots.

This has been a very long post, but hopefully a little helpful? Probably not if you’re really anxiously waiting on the next book, but most important to note there’s always progress. Thank you SO much for patience and if you’ve read this far, you’re my favorite.