Waiting for Weft

Toward the end of 2015 I pushed myself very hard on two simultaneous writing endeavours. I was doing a rewrite on Without a City Wall after it had been edited. At the same time I was in the home stretch on Redeeming Blood and writing 500 to 1,000 words per day on that. The combination of these two efforts was physically and emotionally draining so when I finished I decided I was going to take six months before starting my next book.

I had some ideas of the themes and the narrative trajectory of the next book. I also wanted to challenge myself by writing a longer book and get away from the dual narrative timeline I had used in both WaCW and RB. So I thought I would spend six months planning and outling the new book, which will be called Weft, and start writing in earnest in July 2016.

Apparently, that's not how my process works; I can't plan if I'm not producing. I developed a very rough structure, a few characters and a high level narrative arc but that was as far as I got. I just had to start. So, here we are: February 2016 and Weft is 2% complete! If I can continue to produce at my targetted run rate Weft will be complete on Halloween. It's a huge challenge but I've been here twice before and can do it again.

Books I'd Like to Read But Don't Want to Write

• A first contact SF novel written from the point-of-view of the aliens. I have a lurking suspicion that this already exists. Tell me if you know.
• A alternate history of Europe from 300 B.C. to the present which explores the question of what would have happened had Alexander III of Macedon turned west to defeat the Romans instead of heading east to give the Persians a shellacking.
• A Neuromancer sequel in which the AI from Alpha Centauri makes contact and connects into the matrix wherein Case has to battle it to the death.
• A fantasy trilogy in which... Hang on, scratch that, I don't want to read any fantasy.

The Timeline

The total period of time spanned by the collective narrative arcs of Without a City Wall and Redeeming Blood span 280 years from 2087 to 2367. To add to the complication events are presented in a non linear form with multiple over-lapping story lines and instances of space flight and suspended animation. In short, the sequence and date of events in Redeeming Blood was getting more than slightly confused.

To bring calm to this raging storm I created The Timeline.

This document is about two meters long and details the exact date of every chapter and significant occurrence in both books.  Completing Redeeming Blood without it would be impossible.