This really should have been “State of the Author, Mid-Year,” but I was dealing with health issues for most of June (nothing serious, just distracting) and then July was kind of busy at work, so here we are…

-WIPs and backlist:

–Hunter Healer King 3: stands at 37000 words of an estimated 50000. I feel like I am further along on the current book in this series than I was at the equivalent points of 2023 and 2024, but my past blog posts don’t seem to bear that out. Maybe I’m just more productive in terms of overall words produced between both WIPs. I am currently working on the late stages and wrap-up of one of the lighter subplots, but still have the one of the darkest sections of the book to write, as well as the climax and epilogue.

-Space Regency: stands at ~17500 words. Kind of stalled just before the Netherfield Ball analogue right now, but I have some idea of where I’m going after that, and potential story ideas for three-ish sequels. I want some confirmation on what role James Northcote (a one-episode guest star on Star Wars: Andor) is playing in Netflix P&P before I get to the Rosings/Hunsford equivalent. I am also flirting with inserting some of the Mansfield Park characters into the Rosings setting as sequel hooks.

-Updates to older works: I updated the print covers for the Star Master duology at some point, don’t know if I’ve mentioned that before. Making progress on the Ancestors of Jaiya refresh (got new cover art out of Midjourney and worked with Claude AI on new blurbs) but it’s not live yet. Still need to review the books in the series for another round of corrections, add text to the covers (both are things I’d rather not outsource to AI) and push the updates to Amazon.

-Series Collections: I had vague hopes of getting the Space Regency out there on 5/4/2026, but it’s not looking like it’s going to get there in time. If that is the case, I will aim the Star Master two-in-one for a 5/4/2026 release date, and maybe save the Space Regency for the more symbolic 5/4/2027 date. The Ancestors of Jaiya four-in-one will get released when it gets released.

-Possible (or at least not impossible) future projects. I include these because I personally am always interested in author’s “paths not taken,” and assume other people feel that way too. There isn’t actually much guarantee that these will happen, or turn out as described:

–Space regencies: For reasons too complicated to explain here, it looks like the Mansfield Park retelling would be the second space regency (more of a midquel than a sequel) if I can find the willpower to keep on with these. It would possibly followed by an S&S/NA mashup and an Emma/Persuasion mashup, in that order, with P&P characters possibly appearing throughout the series. The current space regency is already a fairly loose riff on P&P (there is no Charles Bingley for instance; the nearest equivalent is the eldest Bennet offspring, a young man who is Georgiana Darcy’s love interest). The other space regencies would be even looser retellings, if they happen at all.

–HHK-verse prequels: I have somewhat solid prequel ideas for a novel involving Maxim’s parents’ generation, and a different novel about Maxim’s distant ancestor Elegast. Vaguer ideas for a prequel about the war triggered by the Empress Inquisitor, a prequel/midquel about Maxim’s cousin Victor, and a sequel about Maxim’s Uncle Ambrose (the nice nerdy one, not the dour, paranoid Inquisitor. That’s Uncle Jerome.) And really, really vague ideas about the fall of Thule, the Numenor/Atlantis analogue. All of this depends on how burned out I am on this setting and group of character archetypes by the time I finish HHK3.

–Fantasy Ruritanian mystery: I’d done some worldbuilding on this a while back: low fantasy mysteries in a world where WWI wrapped up somewhat earlier and with less dramatic consequences for the losing side, with Austria-Hungary shedding some outer territories but continuing as the Dual Monarchy. I thought of it as a “fork,” for lack of a better word, on the feisty girl/posh guy concept. If you look at the numbered evolutions in the feisty girl/posh guy posts, the fantasy mystery concept would be something like “4a” I guess. But a nice dorky bureaucrat, whom I had always envisioned as Dr. Maxim os Storm’s other cousin, randomly decided that he, and his femme fatale love interest, belonged in *this* setting, not the HHK-verse. This is all the thanks I get for giving him an actual name!