So here it is then, the end.
Mean for the Holidays 2020 was, for me, an expression of frustration and anger and sadness and hope. After watching the world and seeing myself for who I’ve become at the end of this long journey I needed something to make me feel more at home in my own skin. So, I did what I always do and I wrote about it. I fleshed out my aggravations and sorrows into a series and released them over two weeks.
I’m particularly proud of this year as even though I missed two pieces because I couldn’t get them figured out, I managed to still write each of the others and meet the deadlines. Sometimes life is about meeting deadlines and that’s okay. Sometimes all you can do is all you can do.
Among the other wild stress-inducing events of the year, I hope that your holidays whatever you celebrate will be fantastic. Before I set off for the remainder of 2020 and enjoy the end of the year with my friends and family, I wanted to leave you with a few small things.
The first order of business is that I hope you too enjoy the end of the year as much as you can. I’ve preached the same line for years on Modern Alchemy/Gravity, My Enemy. I’ve long believed that life is not meant to be awful. Of course, I’ve learned much this year to the tune of what an awful life would consist of and I still believe it. So, I hope and I pray that whoever you are reading this don’t fall to the will of the world around you and that your coming year is better than this one by leagues.
Second, I’m going to do something that I haven’t done before on the blog. With the publication of the Grimoire of Finality, it marks the beginning of a new era for me. I’ve taken writing seriously, at least to myself, for a lot of years now. I’ve penned several novels and short stories and I’ve held this dream of becoming a famous author close to my heart for some time, however, I have not behaved as if that is my true desire. I’ve created a sprawling, vast universe and am finally ready to start releasing those projects to the public.
I tend to make things that are pretty simple sound awfully dramatic when I write posts like this, and I wanted to make sure that I covered my bases this time around. I wanted to hold myself accountable for the things I will create this year, and because of that, I planned out a relative schedule to publish openly on this site and others, something I hope to make a yearly habit as I work on providing richer, deeper stories for you. (I have a similar post live on Modern Alchemy right now.)
Quickly before I get into the game plan for 2021, I want to talk about the importance of goals. I’ve been a goalpost guy for a long time. I start a book and finish it quickly, blazing past the first goal usually in 30-60 days, then my work stops around the time I have to edit and publish that content, that’s what The Grimoire of Finality is for. It’s a long term project that I am using to force myself to stick to my own personal deadlines regarding my writing. I’ve done it “seriously” for almost a decade, and have been scared to pull the trigger on publishing things since the original release of The Darling Bones in 2014. Because of that, I sat on novels for a long time and talked about how I would get them out and send them off, etc. I did this so long that my writing has completely changed from back then, and I re-wrote The Darling Bones this year. I can’t give an actual release date, I don’t want to. My goal isn’t to release it as soon as possible, I want to edit it start shopping around to publish it for real, again, the right way. I used to get hung up on goals and it led to me publishing something that was poorly crafted (Even if it was crafted with a great deal of love.) So I decided that I wouldn’t make concrete specific deadlines for my large projects. This is where GoF comes in, as I work on the mainline projects and close them out one by one, I’ll be publishing other, smaller pieces of writing here.
I think for me, the best thing I can do is publish my personal goals and what I expect over the year. Unfortunately, this is going to sound a bit like I’m just writing “State of the Sanderson” copypasta, but I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time and a little copypasta is okay here and there. So… here it goes.
2021 – Ursa Major
Over the year I have three main projects…
- The Darling Bones (Precursor Six Novel) – A revision of my first novel, a Suspenseful Romantic Serial Killer story, rewritten and reworked from the ground up. In this novel, you’ll meet Bryan Robertson from this month’s stories before he became what he was in those pieces.
- Inkworks – A Horror novel I’ve had planned which takes place before the Colors of Pain, but a ways after the next novel in my line-up, so far called Coward.
- Coward (Precursor Six Novel) – An Urban/Dark Fantasy novel that takes place after the events of Frogs Are Good Luck and shows the continuation of Bryan’s journey.
Aside from those major projects I’m working on outlining six other projects and preparing them for writing. Three of them range from Urban Fantasy in my real-world setting and three of them which are set in much more fancy fantasy settings. Some of these working titles will be recognizable to readers as I’ve spoken a bit about them before, most of these projects will be limited on description and understanding for the time being until their outlines are more fully complete and I’ve gotten ready to write them:
- The Queen of Ravens Fantasy Series Book 1 – About Tarot Cards & Authoritarianism.
- Glass Cuts (Precursor Six Novel) – Urban Fantasy, A book about plants, and people who aren’t people.
- Crackling of the Woods Fantasy Series Book 1 – About Bones and Blood and Trees.
- Hunter/Hunted (Precursor Six Novel) – Urban Fantasy, a Cat & Mouse chase but with magic and a lot of blood.
- Sandmen Fantasy Series Book 1 – About Sand and Slaves and Violent Nationalism.
- Gold Rush (Precursor Six) – Urban Fantasy, Fairytale-Esque coming of age story set in Dorley, NV where Frogs Are Good Luck took place.
The above six I am working on outlining and preparing to write sometime in 2022 and will be posting snippets from the stories here on the Grimoire
Finally, I have my outlined goals for the Grimoire itself as the year turns over.
The Grimoire of Finality is split into a handful of categories, and I intend to use this platform as an encyclopedia of sorts when it comes to referring back to aspects of my universe. Below are my projected goals for the year for each of the categories with a short description of what I’m using the category for.
Tales of the Otherwhere – The Tales I’m writing will span across the First and Second Origin, names which at this time are essentially meaningless to you. For context, the First Origin is a place much like our own, history is almost the same, but with a few added monsters and demons and angels and witch hunters and slimes. The Second Origin is a completely different setting, everything from there will be a more fantasy styled read. I hope to release at least three Tales of the Otherwhere pieces each month this coming year.
The Compendium of Yhordric – A mega project I’ve consumed myself with, in hopes of creating a bestiary of sorts. One of my favorite things to do, since I was young, was to think up monsters and creatures and beasts, and the Compendium is where you will find information regarding all of them. I don’t want to give an approximation, but I hope to work on at least one entry into the compendium every month or two.
About Storytelling – This category I’ve reserved for everything else writing-related. I’m shooting to post here weekly/bi-weekly through the year and talk about the nature of writing and my method, things I’ve learned from my peers and my betters, and ways I’ve grown. I will be posting a small check-in post here at the end of each quarter to hold myself accountable when it comes to the projects I’ve set out to do this year.
Collected Page Fragments – More than anything else, the Grimoire of Finality is a collection of histories, lore, accounts of the happenings in the world I’ve built, and as I continue through I’ll be publishing a minimum of one or two new missing pages to this part of the site every month. I will do my best to keep them moving in chronological order, but time doesn’t always make sense, and some things I don’t want you to know immediately.
I presently have two secret projects specifically designated for digital release that I’ve been working on, and I want to talk about them but I can’t quite yet. Hopefully, I’ll have more details for you before the year is over. I can say, you’ve already been introduced to something from each of them in The Sky Sent Them to Kill + The Children of Bone & Ash Pt. 1
Oh, one more thing…
The Cult of Bone & Ash Pt. 2-X will be released steadily over the year. I can’t give exact dates at this time but I’m excited for you to follow Orlaith and the others on their way to discover the unknown…
In Summary:
Main Writing Projects
TDB – Revision finished by the end of July
INK – First Draft finished by the end of May
COW – First Draft finished by the end of July
Secondary Writing Projects:
TRQP – Outline Complete by the end of May (First Draft may be written this year as well.)
GLC – Outline Complete by the end of June (First Draft may be written this year as well.)
BONE – Outline Complete by the end of August
HH – Outline Complete by the end of September
SAND – Outline Complete by the end of November
GR – Outline Complete by the end of December
The Grimoire of Finality Content Release Estimation:
Tales of the Otherwhere – 3 Pieces per month.
About Storytelling – 2/4 Pieces per month.
Compendium of Yhordric – 1 Piece per month/every other month
Missing Page Fragments – 1/2 Pieces per month.
Anyway, this year has been hell and I am determined to make sure the next few days aren’t hell-like at all. Thank you for reading, and sharing, and getting the word out there. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to have your support. I hope you enjoyed your Christmases! To all of my friends who celebrated another Holiday, I hope yours was just as wonderful as mine!
Enjoy the rest of your year and remember,
The Grimoire of Finality 
[…] Beginning of the End (Bearscape 2021) […]
LikeLike