As the year and decade draws to a close, it’s a good time to reflect on what has transpired and look forward to a new year. I suppose that December 31^st is much the same as any other day, and yet the idea of renewal and a fresh start is a powerful one, and one that I’m always drawn to.

Looking back on an entire decade is a nearly impossible task. Ten years ago I was pursuing my Masters degree in teaching, student teaching and commuting halfway across the city, out into the suburbs, every day.

In the past ten years I’ve held eight jobs, lived in four different places, visited well over a dozen countries, and written fifteen novels. I’ve had family and friends pass away, and I’ve welcomed a beautiful little girl into my life. I’ve gotten married, but learn almost every day how much I don’t know about relationships. In short, it has been a decade, filled with highs and lows. I’ve come a long ways in the last ten years, and yet it still only feels like a small step in hindsight.

It’s an easier task to look back on the last year. Personally, this past year has been a challenging one – perhaps the most challenging I can remember (although my memory isn’t that great, so take that claim with a grain of salt). Yet, I can’t help but feel that my family and I are stronger at the end of 2019, shaped by challenges, than we were when the year began.

Professionally, it has a solid year. Waterstone Media released three new novels this year – Heart of Defiance and Their Spirit Unbroken in the Relentless series, completing that trilogy, and Nightblade’s End, completing the Blades of the Fallen series. I’m excited that I’ve completed the trilogies and can look forward to other projects, but the plan for 2020 is another post.

Beyond that, the other professional accomplishment of note is that I began my own podcast. The Storied Lives Podcast is a place where I get to indulge in some of my deepest curiosities, examining the role that stories play in our lives. I’ve had the opportunity to sit down and speak with some amazing authors and guests, and I’m even more excited to have more conversations in 2020.

Although I wouldn’t call 2019 an easy year, I find myself grateful at the end of it. I’ve met and talked to wonderful people, traveled, and have definitely grown.

Here’s to an even better 2020!

Hey everybody! I’m going to say before this begins that this will probably be a pretty long post. I’m doing it both to keep everybody informed, but also as a way to reflect and plan. I’ll be starting off by reviewing everything that happened in 2018, then move on to my thoughts about 2019.

For those of you who prefer extreme tl;dr versions: 2018 was a year of fun and learning, and 2019 should see the release of a number of new fantasy projects.

So, let’s look at 2018.

The year started with the publication of Nightblade’s Honor this spring. This was the second book in the Blades of the Fallen series I’ve been working on with 47North, and I was really excited to release it.

Not long after that, I released the Code trilogy in three straight months. This was a sci-fi project that takes place in a shared universe, and I learned a lot through the process of releasing books so quickly.

I ended the year with the release of a short story: No Way Home, a novella: Edge of Duty, and a standalone fantasy novel: Relentless Souls. I experimented with some new release strategies – including giving away my short stories and novellas for free to email newsletter subscribers. I really liked the writing and releasing of short stories, and plan on doing more of that as my time allows. Relentless Souls was the largest launch, and I was very excited to see that book released out into the world.

This year also saw the release of Chosen by the Blade, the first book my company has released that wasn’t written by me. I enjoyed seeing that one come to fruition as well, and it was a definite milestone for the company.

Beyond the releases, I was working on a fair amount of projects behind the scenes. The big one that I just completed was to create paperbacks that are available pretty much everywhere. Now all the Nightblade paperbacks, the Primal paperback, and Relentless Souls should be able to be ordered from any bookstore, pretty much anywhere in the world.

There were also a few projects that I worked on this year that have not seen the light of day yet. I’ll talk more about them as we look at 2019, but in short, I also finished a Primal novel, the conclusion to Blades of the Fallen, and an untitled manuscript.

So, it’s been a busy year, and a good one. But I’ll be honest, I’m really excited for 2019. I’ll also admit that while in 2018 I had a pretty solid plan for the year, there’s a lot of question marks in the calendar for this next year. But, I’ll share what I know.

Bring it, 2019!

The first, and some of the biggest news, is that I finally have details on the conclusion of the Blades of the Fallen series. I’ve had the first draft completed since the spring of 2018, but it fell into a bit of publishing purgatory. Thankfully, it has clawed its way out, and will definitely be released either at the end of March 2019 or the beginning of April. I’ve spent the past two weeks diving back into the manuscript and beginning the editing process, and it feels great to be back in the world again. Once that book releases, that will probably be the end of the Nightblade world for a while. I might release some more short stories, but there won’t be any other major releases in 2019 in that universe.

I’m also excited about another manuscript that I just finished a first draft of earlier this month. It’s a book I’ve had in mind for a year or two now, and it has the possibility of becoming my favorite book I’ve written. Unfortunately, I can’t say much for this book at the moment. My goal in 2019 is to secure another traditional-publication contract, and so it could be a while before it sees the light of day.

After finishing up the Nightblade work this spring, the rest of 2019 is honestly a pretty big question mark. I’ve got a ton of projects that I’m interested in, but nothing that has a particular time stamp on it.

One project I’d like to continue is the Primal universe. I had originally sketched out the series as nine books, and I’ve released the first three, completely written the first draft of the fourth, and was a little over halfway through the fifth before I decided to set it aside for a time. My goal was both to write a fun sci-fi series, and to have smaller, easier projects that could break up my larger books. But as a reader, I’m feeling a little bit of series burnout. I don’t mind trilogies, but books of five, seven, or greater really need to earn it. I’ve debated just releasing Primal 4, 5, and 6 all as one omnibus. We shall see, I suppose. I’ve been leaning more towards fantasy lately, and there’s even a chance Primal might just take a back seat to other projects.

Another project I’ve considered is writing another book in the world of Relentless Souls. To be clear – it wouldn’t be a series, and wouldn’t be connected to Relentless Souls beyond the sharing of a world. I just really enjoyed writing in that universe and would definitely be down for doing some more.

Finally, there’s a project I’ve been sitting on for a few years. One that I’ve been debating off and on for a long time. It would end up being really, really big, but I’ve been sketching out ideas for a connected series of worlds and lands. If possible, I’d really like to get to work on that in 2019. It’s something I’m really excited about.

Beyond all that, I’ve also been working on a video game! Of sorts. I love video games, and I love stories that have branching paths. Over the course of the past year I’ve been sketching out what amounts to an interactive book. It would look and act like a book, but you would make the choices that make the story advance. It’s been a fun side project, and I am hoping to release it in 2019.

Whew!

Well, I think that’s just about it. I do apologize that I have so little concrete detail for 2019. Right now, most of the year is unwritten, and that really excites me.

As we near the end of 2018, I just wanted to once again say a tremendous thank you to everyone for your continued support. It means so much to me to be able to tell stories for a living, and I am constantly grateful. May your 2019 start wonderfully!

Top o’ the morning, everyone! I hope today finds you all doing well.

For the most part, life continues as usual here at Waterstone.

Updates:

1. We are getting close to our first produced work (not written by me). It should be ready to go later this month.
2. Additionally, the Code series finishes up this month with Code of Justice.
3. Personally, I’m working on the first draft of a brand-new fantasy book. I’ll have a lot more details coming soon, but it’s been a really fun story to write.

And I think that’s about it. Enjoy the weekend!

Ryan

I would love to say that I’ve got a huge update for everyone, but events around the company have been pretty quiet lately. My wife and I just returned from our annual vacation much refreshed. I got a lot of books read, but didn’t make much progress on writing. But, here’s the news, such as it is.

• Code of Vengeance is on sale this week, so if you’re interested, there’s never been a better time to check it out! This will probably be the last sale for a while on the book.
• I’m quietly working on finishing the paperbacks for all the Code books. The interiors are done, now I’m just finishing up the covers.
• Finally, I’ve been making slow progress on the new fantasy novel. More on this soon!

As always, I hope you’re all doing well!

Ryan

Top o’ the morning everyone. I decided to do something a little different this week. I’m taking a vacation with my wife, and decided to skip on the blog for this week. But, as always, there’s a lot going on!

The first big news is that Code of Vengeance released recently. Thanks to everyone who has already purchased for the support – I really appreciate it. Code of Pride – the second book in the series – is already up for pre-order and will be released on June 20. It’s been very fun, but very crazy, to see the books releasing so soon after one another.

Second, I’ve been really excited to start working on a brand-new fantasy book. I’m about a third of the way through the first draft, and it’s really been fun. I’m going to be excited to share it with you.

Other than that, I’ve been working on a number of odds and ends. I’m creating the paperbacks for the Code series, and Andrew Tell and I just started working on producing the audiobook for the entire Primal Trilogy. 

As always, I hope y’all are doing well!

Ryan

The end of the tunnel is finally in sight: After juggling a number of projects for some time, I’m finally getting down to the magic number of 2! (I always like drafting/writing one book while editing another).

As per usual, here’s a short, bullet-point update of where I am in a number of projects:

• Code of Vengeance launched this week, and I’m excited to see how people like it. If you’re interested in learning more, I wrote a little about it in this week’s blog post.
• I’ve started writing my new, completely stand-alone fantasy novel, and I have to admit, it’s been really, really fun.
• I’ve also been copyediting the first Waterstone-produced book that isn’t written by me. I’ll be talking more about it in the future, but it will be releasing this summer and I couldn’t be happier about it.

I think that’s it for major news – I’m still working on the next few Code books, but they are nearly all wrapped up. I hope you all enjoy the rest of the month of May!

Ryan