When I finally succeeded in publishing my first novel one year ago, I was already entrenched in my second novel. Dragon’s Blood was on a roll, and I found no problem trying to juggle promoting my first book with keeping up the writing the second novel. I finished the first draft of the manuscript a while back and have been playing around with it for a while now, knowing I was not going to publish until October, of course coinciding with the Halloween season (yes, it is a season to some of us).
So while I am currently tweaking the novel one last time and getting final feedback from my beta readers, I also have to keep up with a number of other writing goals. For one, PUMMELED is still out there for sale, and I would like to get more people reading it. They say you need to get a few novels under your belt before you get people to start coming in droves to read your stuff, and that is what I am hoping to accomplish. As of now, not only am I promoting the first book and editing the second, I have finally taken all the stage plays I wrote between 1997 and 2003 and have put them together in a collection. (I know, most authors do short story compilations, and I am doing stage plays.) So this is where I am at with my writing as of this writing:
PUMMELED – currently for sale through this website (and also AMAZON). The Kindle sale is running through the end of the day, Saturday, June 22nd where you can download it for 99 cents. If you are a Kindle Unlimited subscriber, you can read it for free.
DRAGON’S BLOOD – I have revisited the manuscript for 
the first time in a couple months since my editor sent me back her thoughts. I am now doing one final read-through to get myself again familiarized with the material. My beta readers are sending me their thoughts, and my illustrator is hard at work getting me some great pictures to include. As of right now, here is my timeline as the release date approaches:
SEPTEMBER 1 – begin process of uploading for publication. This may take a while, as Amazon will need to format the document and cover, so there may need to be format revisions done before it’s ready.
SEPTEMBER 13 – Since it will be Friday the 13th, I will offer a signed copy pre-sale through my website. This announcement may go out a week or so in advance.
SEPTEMBER 21 (approx.) – Hoping to have book formatted and completely ready for publication. All pre-sales will me mailed out (or delivered for those who are local).
OCTOBER 1 – “Official” release date (Amazon and on my website). Will hope to have a book signing that weekend (4th – 6th) and possibly another one the 3rd weekend in October.
PLAYING WITH THE MACABRE – My collection of 10 stage plays is also being tweaked and revised a bit and will be published on Black Friday (November 29th). My hope is to do a book signing that weekend that will feature all manuscripts for sale. I am not sure how this one will do, but it is just something I wanted to get out there. I put a lot of time into these stories (and you can read about each one HERE), and even if they never see a stage again, I will know that I got them out there to the public.
WORKS IN PROGRESS – A while back I posted a teaser to two novels I was working on. Both ideas were coming at me at once, so I just ran with them both and tried to keep them going simultaneously. Well, now I have backed off that lofty goal for a bit. I found myself away from both works for several months (thanks to other obligations, jobs, etc.). However, now I am back to focusing on one of those two – Welcome to Oblivion – which I am now past 25,000 words and moving swiftly, as the story is starting to take a life of its own. The other piece will be revisited in time, as I have no intention of abandoning the idea.
So, there’s my update. I am losing my mind a little as I try to juggle everything going on right now, but for a writer of demented stories, is that really a bad thing? Feel free to follow me on social media on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Thanks for reading!
Eric Woods, Author 