As I mentioned in the last update, I’ve been hacking away at several projects simultaneously.

However, at a certain point, I realized this approach was much like trying to sever the heads of a hydra with a butterknife.

The better plan of attack would be swiftly and decisively lopping one head off and moving without haste to the next, and then the next without losing momentum.

Since progress on any given book has been marginal and deadlines are drawing near, I decided to switch back into my corporate scientist mode and approach these books as project sprints.

I now have clear publishing dates in sight for what I would consider the first three “cornerstone books” of my indie author career:

• Early September – Wulfwoode (novella, 50k – 60k words)
• Early October – Beastform: A Codex of Werewolf Legends & Lore (160k – 180k words)
• November – Greycross: Twilight at Primrose (debut serial novel, 160k – 170k words)

Beginning in 2027, I’m going to implement and test out a quarterly framework for book projects (i.e., Q1, Q2, …). That is, one book per quarter—a much saner approach than the desperate juggling act of 2025 – 2026. This new cadence ought to give me roughly 1.5 months to get a story to a first draft, and another 1.5 months for editing and book design.

And this means total immersion in that project for 3 months, living and breathing the story, and giving it the best polish I can—then moving on.

If all goes smoothly, I can have 4 books out per year. I don’t mean equally massive tomes, but something like:

• One serial novel in the Greycross series (80k – 120k words)
• One dark mythology codex (80% curating, 10% translation work, 10% unique framing content)
• One standalone novel (70k – 100k words)
• One novella, light novel, or short story collection (30k – 60k words)

Or however it evolves.

The key to success here, from all that I’ve gathered from authors who succeed, is consistency and breadth of catalogue.

With everything I’ve learned from these first three cornerstone book projects, I think this will give me the right balance in terms of workload and deadlines, and it’s aligned with my 12+ years of corporate science project work.

This is how the Brandon Sandersons or the Larry Correias of the world become prolific: showing up every day, sticking to schedules, and shattering the illusion of the perfect manuscript.

I also remember Stephen King saying in On Writing that you ought to be able to finish a book in a season, which I think is fair and doable for me, especially given the fact I’ve recently broken through some significant psychological barriers as an author and creator.

If I look back on the past 3 – 4 years, it’s clear to me now that I was spending most of my time getting over the steepest part of the learning curve as an author.

It was a rite of passage, I suppose, full of self-doubt, constant revision, and pushing my craft to the point where I finally understood what my actual objective is as a storyteller (i.e., to convey the idea as clearly as possible, not to win literary awards on the merits of mind-boggling wordsmithery).

Stragglers

Any time I have left between late November and the end of the year will be devoted to seeing how many of my smaller book projects I can knock out (hey, I bought a 10-pack of ISBNs and I damn well plan to use ’em!)

These dingleberry book projects include:

• Jessica (novella) – a psychological horror / 90’s nostalgia / coming of age romp featuring my patented blend of the dark mythic mingling with the mundane. It’s a great little read and a fairly important artifact in my creative journey.
• King James’ Daemonologie – this is a re-pub of the 16th-century treatise by King James I of England / VI of Scotland, offering his philosophical and religious arguments against the practice of witchcraft. This was primarily a translation project, but I’ve added some framing content in line with the brand I’m establishing for my “dark mythology” series. I have many other such “quick win” projects slated, including various occult-adjacent books.

These 2 stragglers may very well see publication before we say goodbye to 2026, which would be a nice way to purge my creative backlog and get ready for the next major works in my catalogue.

YouTube Channel

Along with the launch of the cornerstone books, I’ve got around 7 YouTube videos I can begin publishing to kick off my official author YouTube channel.

I’ve found that I really enjoy video production, especially since I learned to frame it as just another medium or facet of my complete creative life.

Not only am I hitting my stride with talking to the camera (all while maintaining my naturally laidback delivery style), but I’m also finding a lot of use for tons of songs I’ve written over two decades, utilizing them as background music and intro cues.

As a bonus, I realized after editing thousands of frames of video that I’m not nearly half as ugly or awkward as I thought I was! Yay!

The content on my channel isn’t the common fare of high-paced, dopamine-spiking, brain junk the masses crave, but deeper introspective meditations and musings from the domains of creativity, writing, folklore, dark mythology, my original works, philosophy, depth psychology, and lots more in these spheres.

Like anything, I’m sure it will find its audience, and hopefully serve as another important gateway to my creative ecosystem.

The content map for the channel looks like this at the moment:

1. Mythic Musings – unscripted musings on a given topic from my study or other inspired places.
2. Legends & Lore – deep dives into subjects I encounter during the research for my books, featuring dark mythology, the occult, creepy history, and my own original lore.
3. From the Wilds – free-flow walk ‘n’ talks out in the sanctity of the wilderness, mainly in the North Georgia mountains or wherever I may roam (cue badass Metallica riffage).
4. Passages – I select a random passage from a book in my library and give a lived-in, unscripted framing in a 5 – 7 minute session of introspection. Usually in the domains of depth psychology, philosophy, history, and other non-fiction.
5. Audio Chapters – I’m going to be reading some chapters and passages from my own work, set to some cool visuals and my original background music.
6. Quick Updates, announcements, sneak peeks, etc.

Together, these form a robust content architecture that can carry me forward indefinitely, supplying nearly endless ideas and integrating seamlessly with my book projects.

Instagram

I’ve finally bitten the bullet ahead of my upcoming book launches and revived my Instagram. I’ll be sharing things twice a week or so, just little peeks of things here and there or pics of anything that’s fascinating to me. Nothing requiring too much brainpower.

I had found that pretty much every other social network I experimented with was little more than a cesspool of socio-political sludge, full of rage-baiting slop posted by the CCP or NGO-run dummy accounts that I had to wade through before ever encountering anything with depth. I may or may not be exaggerating here.

Instagram, as a primarily visual medium, is about all I can tolerate outside of the archival architecture of YouTube.

Locking In

So, with all that said, it’s back to work I go!

I’ve been utilizing a weekly schedule that I try to stick to religiously, and so far, it has really been moving the needle in terms of progress.

I’d really love to hear from any other indie authors about how they handle their timelines and project schedules, as I’m always open to new insights.

Until next time!