After I ranted, someone in comments said:

you were talking about the idea of going back to repitch the Inheritor’s Cycle as something longer than a trilogy to the publisher. I’m sort of curious if the story was spread out across a longer series — if we wouldn’t only see more detail of this nifty world, but possibly make things easier on you as being able to encapsulate smaller story arcs within each volume…and thus, you know…more frequent release dates? :)

which I thought was interesting enough to write a blog-length response to, so now I’m reposting it here. :)

We still haven’t made a decision on how long that series will be, but I’m guessing 5 books, assuming I get to keep writing it. A couple of things happened to make it longer:

– THE QUEEN’S BASTARD, as pitched, would have been about 235,000 words long, which was very nearly twice the size my editor would have liked it to be. We ended up making some revisions to the story and cutting it in a different place, so the point I think of as the *end* of TQB is nearly a hundred thousand words into TPC. As it turned out, cutting it where we did was incredibly good and important, because the story needed some point of view shifts to be told properly, and having a new book to do that in worked really nicely.

– I began working on the synopsis for the third and theoretically (although I was already pretty sure it would not actually be the) final book in the series. The first three or four paragraphs of the synopsis could potentially be the prologue for book three.

They could also be a very solid book of their own. The more I struggled with the synopsis, the more I realized that part of the reason I *was* struggling was because in my heart of hearts, I really want that third book to be the story outlined as the prologue. So that’s kind of what I think will happen, if sales justify continuing the series (I sure hope they do).

It will not, however, mean more frequent release dates. :) This is the last year I am writing more than two contracted books; I’ve been writing about 3.5 books a year on average for the last four years, and I’m worn out. Next year TRUTHSEEKER and WAYFINDER (or books with different titles but which I am currently calling TRUTHSEEKER and WAYFINDER) will be out (and if my editor’s interference with the ideas of that explodes far enough, perhaps there will be a third book as well, tentatively titled WORLDBREAKER. But that’s pure conjecture, as not only is it not plotted, it’s not sold. Anyway.). In 2010 there will also be the fifth Walker Papers, and from there on out it will be (hopefully) one Walker Papers a year until the series is finished (in 2013, assuming all goes well) and one Inheritors’ Cycle (assuming they buy more) and then one something-else from Del Rey after that series is done. If more books come out I’ll be writing them on spec and sell them after they’re done. :)

And, because he and other people asked, prompted by the ranty post, I am now getting around to posting my release schedule this year. It looks like this:

March: A FANTASY MEDLEY (anthology featuring a story of the Old Races)

May: THE PRETENDER’S CROWN (book two of the Inheritors’ Cycle) (there’s a teaser here)

June: mass market paperback re-releases of URBAN SHAMAN, THUNDERBIRD FALLS, & COYOTE DREAMS (books 1-3 of the Walker Papers)

September: WALKING DEAD (book four of the Walker Papers)

October: mass market paperback re-release of WINTER MOON (anthology featuring “Banshee Cries”, a Walker Papers novella); also, THE PHANTOM QUEEN AWAKES, a mass market anthology with an original short story about the Morrigan

November: TAKE A CHANCE graphic novel, compiling issues 1-5 of TAKE A CHANCE, my new superhero comic currently being released as monthly issues

Frankly, I’m exhausted. :)

ytd wordcount: 65,700
miles to Minas Tirith: 68.3
ytd km swum: 21.2