So, it’s almost the end of 2017 and I realize I’ve published five books within the last trip around the sun.
DEAD GONE (Tom Lange #1) was published December 26, 2016. BLACK SOUL, the final book of the Titan series, was published February 3, 2017, followed by BURIED SECRETS on August 18, GONE MISSING on November 16, and TRUTH OR DEAD on December 14. So not all five in 2017, but technically within a year!
So what?
That’s a good point – so what. Is writing all about speed? Absolutely not. It just worked out that way.
Like most books, each of these was written well ahead of the publishing date. Dead Gone was written in early 2016, partly in Florida, where the story takes place. Buried Secrets and Gone Missing were written later that year, simultaneously.* (*Meaning finish a draft of one, leap frog to a draft of the other, and so on until completion.) Truth or Dead was written over the first half of 2017.
And Black Soul? Honestly I can’t remember. I’d had the idea for a while that the story of Brendan Healy and Jennifer Aiken didn’t end with Daybreak – in fact the end of Daybreak, while conclusive, does set them up for a follow-on story – and at some point, I wrote it.
Anyway.
I don’t expect the next 365 days will yield as many published novels. Chances are, in 2019 there will be another batch – but who knows. The extent to which I plan all this stuff out is the extent to which I’m not actually sitting down and writing. Everybody is different; I like to venture into the cloud of creativity with one eye squinty and the other eye shut. Then again, maybe 2018 is the year I come to do things differently? The future of my process is just as murky.
Can’t wait to find out.
As always, thanks to all of you amazing readers and supporters. I hope I’ve given some of you something of value with these books. You deserve it. And really none of it would have been possible without you, reader, and without my amazing editors – Abigail Fenton, Caroline Oakley, Jasper Joffe – and all the talented staff at Bookouture and Joffe Books. Happy Holidays to you all; Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all the ways in which you may observe and celebrate this time of year.
By the way, my Christmas tree appears to have opened a portal to another dimension. Maybe that’s what the next book will be about. (Joking…… maybe….)
With love and best wishes,
Tim “T.J.” Brearton
