Lords War update 4/23

Still not sure on that name, but we'll go with it for the time being. As I wait for my artist to find some free time to get some sketches to me for indiegogo (think: kickstarter) I've decided to move on with the writing. I only have a chapter, or two left to edit in The Five Man Midget Death Squad, but I feel like I need to start progressing the next story as well.

With a night of notes and overly deep thoughts behind me, I've got the next 4-5 books planned out. Not entirely, but well enough to know the main points and some of the overlap. Book 5 (Lords War #1) is well into the writing process, sitting at about 10k words that I've been re-reading and editing, mostly to remind myself where I left off. At this time, I have no plans on making this book worthwhile without the previous book. As I stated at the beginning of this series, I wanted to write these in trilogies, or sets of some kind. Book 4 (Consequences) was the first of this set. So, if you are new to the series and have the urge to skip ahead, you could technically start at #4.

Book 5 is going to be  fun book to write. It starts with action and will remain action packed for the bulk of it. That's pretty standard with this series, but I think even more so for this part. At present, I'm trying out a change in technique with the writing to include mid-stream backstory. By that I mean a short paragraph, or two of how the characters met, lacking in most description and explanation. How the frak am I going to do that, you ask? I wrote a short chapter prior on how two other characters met, giving the place and setting, left it off with the feeling this scenario happens regularly. This way, when I bring up the mid-stream backstory later, you (the reader) already have all the necessary information you need to imagine the quick character introduction. I think it'll work out just fine, but I'll have some people beta-read it for me, just to be sure.

For those of you reading this, wondering why I would change the style in this book when its the 5th one in the series, the answer is simple. I've done it in every single book and will probably continue to do so. I like long series with well understood characters and a living, breathing world to watch them tromp in. I am not overly fond of the consistency that comes with a long series, when it comes to writing style and sometimes unchanging characters. I'm writing this series in such a way that I hope I can avoid that, but the reasoning for this (beyond my own taste) will also make sense from the story standpoint.

If you pick up the Death Squad book when it comes out, that'll give you a hint of the overall plan with the writing. Down the road of this main series, it'll all be spelled out. For now, just sit back, relax and enjoy the bizarre ride with me.