2022 Writing Projects

 

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a great holiday season (and if not, then here's to a fresh start!). First of all, I want to say thank you for all of your continued support over the years, but especially in 2021! I saw a lot of growth with readership and I hope to continue to reach more people who love LGBTQ Fiction. 2021 was an interesting year for me writing-wise. I published my first Contemporary story (Hollywood To Horses) and received Runner-Up honors in two categories of the Rainbow Awards the first year that I ever dipped my toes into the book awards circuit. In total, I wrote and published two books and sold two short stories to anthologies. Pretty good considering how many challenges I faced throughout the year!

So, here's what I'm working on heading into 2022:

• Nótt Haven: Book 2 (a sequel to The Dandy Medium) - It's looking like this will end up being a duology with possible spin-offs in the future.

• The Dead Oaks: Omnibus - I've been wanting to do this for a while and now feels like a good time. The goal is to release an omnibus edition of the entire Dead Oaks series (re-edited and with a new cover) which will possibly include a new short story.

• Somniscope - this follow-up anthology to Mirrormaze will release in December 2022 and will include my new short story, Looped.

• New Dreampunk series tentatively titled Dreampunk 2.0 - ROAM was my debut series and also my first venture into a genre that I ultimately helped define. I have a new series idea in mind which will also be very Dreampunk but I haven't decided yet how entwined it'll be to ROAM or if I'll keep it completely separate. This will be the beginning of a new giant project and I probably won't begin working on it until closer to the end of the year.

On The Back-Burner:

• Nótt Haven: Book 3 - On the off chance that I just write up a storm this year and actually have time to do more than the aforementioned, I do have another Nótt Haven story already in mind but it would be a spin-off.

• Experimental - I have a few ideas that will be unlike anything I've done before and I have yet to decide if I'll write them under this pen name or a new one. If I get to work on any of them, I'll keep you posted with more details.

What's Scrapped:

• I hate throwing out any story idea, but sometimes they just don't work out. I had mentioned back in Autumn a new short story that I was working on. If you follow me on other platforms you may remember seeing some talk of this or some aesthetic inspo photos. I've decided to scrap this story. Recently, I've seen the same premise begin to be published by other authors in the same genre and as disheartening as it is, it kind of killed my vibe. Maybe I'll revisit it in the future, but for now, I'm calling it quits on that one.

But that's okay! I feel like I have enough writing projects going to keep me busy for a very long time. 😁

Which story are you looking forward to the most?

I'm excited for you to join me on my writing journey this year and look forward to sharing new stories with you all soon!

Cheers! 🥂

Midnight Monsters & ROAM Meets Dreampunk

As you already know if you subscribe to my newsletter or follow me on social media, The Dead Oaks: Midnight Monsters is now available on both Amazon & Wattpad.  Huge thanks, love, and appreciation to everyone that has gotten a copy!  If you have a chance, please consider leaving a review either on Amazon or Goodreads.  Reviews help authors more than you know!  They increase our chances of reaching new readers and if you enjoy my stories then I hope you'll want to share them with others who might also like them.  :)

The first two chapters are currently available on Wattpad and a new chapter will be uploaded every Friday.  Or you can read the entire thing at once by purchasing on Amazon.  I won't do this with all of my books but it works best for YA titles such as this since some YA readers don't have the ability to purchase books on Amazon.

I hope you all have been doing well!  I've been posting all of my updates through my newsletter which has left this space a little barren.  So, my question is, what sort of content would you like to see here?  Would you like more behind the scenes and extras on my books and characters?  Would you prefer writing tips?  Would you like for me to obsess and rant about the paranormal in general?  All valid options.  Let me know if you have any preferences.

In other news, with the re-release of ROAM coming toward the end of this year, I've begun the process of delving back into the series and refreshing myself on my own dogma and taking many MANY notes.  I'm working on outlining the final book in the trilogy (Don't worry.  I still believe in prequels and spin-offs.) and I hope to begin writing it within the next month.  It's been a lot of fun to revisit these characters and to really sharpen my focus on how I approach the Dreampunk genre.  If you get a chance, I suggest reading this Dreampunk article by Cliff Jones Jr.  He's done an excellent job of documenting this ever-evolving genre; and if you scroll to the bottom, you can find me there with an interview!

Do you have any favorite Dreampunk stories?  

Have a great weekend & Happy Reading!

-Dez-