Outpost Report | January Monthly Roundup
New year, new projects, and voices from Atar.
RECORDED LOG | UNRECOVERABLE
LOCATION: FLEET, LISTENING POST NINETY-FOUR
“Unidentified ship. Transmit transponder code now.”
DATA CORRUPTION, FILE NOT FOUND.
Kicking off the New Year is always hard, especially after the holidays. You’ve got to drag yourself back from the brink, put your head down, and start the grind again. The hard part’s just getting started. We’re past the point of mercy, so let’s see the blood of it.
Town Herald:
New Arrivals: Welcome all of you who have joined in the last few weeks. If you haven’t gotten your free ebook, please check your inbox and find the welcome email. Inside, there’s a link to Maro and his first story, Red Creek.
Volume I: It’s officially out, worldwide, on all major global platforms. It’s a huge step in the right direction to bring the entire series to the global audience. Other than Amazon, you can now find it on Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, Smashwords, and more. If you want a paperback, you’ll find it cheapest on Amazon, but if you love a different retailer, you can still find it there.
Books: For those of you who don’t know, I have 10 books published, and you can find them all on Amazon. Soon, it’ll be all retailers, but I’m providing revisions to all books before I do.
Audiobooks: I’ve had a major setback with the equipment, so “It’s dead, Jim.”
Decimation Protocol: The book is going to the editor at the beginning of February. I’ve reached out to the cover artist, and we’re brainstorming the cover. For those unaware, this is a sequel to The Demon’s Fate.
Battle Formations:
Audiobooks:
Sometime between the last recording and the recent post-vacation power-up, the interface died. The Audiobox iTwo is faulty, and I’ve been in contact with PreSonus for an under-warranty replacement. It’s taken a lot of back and forth, but now, I’m waiting on delivery.
As for the Audiobooks, I’ll be putting Flawed To The Core on hold, and jumping into Maro 1: Red Creek. I always listen to my body and mind when doing things—writing, rest, gym—and it’s telling me full steam ahead for Red Creek. I’m looking forward to reading it, discovering the character voices, and bringing the world of Atar to life.
Maro 3:
After finishing Vol. I, I took a short journey to Atar, where I spent just a few days with Maro. Honestly, the reprieve was short-lived, but it was the right call. Maro 3 is coming out this year—2026—and it still needs some TLC before it goes to the editor. I finished draft 4, and the next round is the last, but a labor-intensive one. Tackling it again is high on the priority list, and I want to give myself some cushion so there’s not a crunch between the editor and the release date.
Vol. II:
This is the next step in going global. The objective is to get this ready as fast as possible. I’d hoped to get this out before my birthday, but I should set more realistic expectations. Vol. I took far longer than I initially planned, and now, I’ll assume this one will, too—to be on the safe side. To alleviate burnout, I’ll be working two projects simultaneously: this one, and Maro 7.
As stated before, this novel will be about compression. A lot of people said it was dense and overly-wordy, and you know what? They might be right. In my early years, I overwrote, a bad lesson I picked up from reading great authors—even though they were superb novelists like George R. R. Martin. I think we can all agree that sometimes, in the Song of Ice and Fire series, you just want him to get to the point.
I digress. Let’s look at the stat sheet.
Vol II: Start Date: 12/22/25
Prologue: 1/1
Chapters: 17/67
Epilogues: 0/6
Starting Word Count: 242,911
Revised Word Count: 234,884
Morale: thready.
As you can see from the word count reduction, we’re moving in the right direction. I haven’t accidentally gutted it like I did with the first book. I’m being extremely vigilant of that mistake. Overall, the workload for this book is less than the first one I ever published, and the mistakes of a freshman author are real.
What this walkthrough boils down to is refinement. If I spent 50 words trying to explain something, my goal is to whittle that down to about 35. Much like how a steak is more calorie dense than potato chips, that’s what I’m trying to give you: more fat, more protein, less air.
Maro 7:
As some of you may know, I generally work on a lot of projects simultaneously, striking while the iron’s hot. The Maro novellas are something I can knock out fast when I’ve got an idea. Since I want to release one-a-year for five years, I’ve got to buckle down and get the latter drafts done, especially since they all need five a piece.
Though I’m feeling the burnout while combing through Vol. II, I’ve decided each day I’ll attempt to write Maro 7. Don’t want to give too much away, but it will be a nonlinear, monster-centric story—very much a Man vs. Nature, reminiscent of Bloodbane, Book 2 in the series.
Vol. IV:
It’s due out in 2027, and I’m looking forward to bringing it to you. It’s the next major project. Once Vol. II & III are released worldwide, all eyes will turn to this behemoth. A quick recap of the word count just to give you an idea.
1st Draft: 402,000
4th Draft: 273,000
I cut a lot of early draft fat, and I’m hoping to trim a bit more as the print cost will be astronomical, which means a more expensive book for you. Draft five will commence later this year, and the goal is to have it out towards the beginning of 2027.
Vol. VIII:
I started on Vol. VIII a while back and then put it down. Check out the post for the August 2025 Monthly Roundup. I’m still feeling the itch to write it. Impulse aside, I’ve got to resist for the moment, otherwise it might derail the momentum I’m building.
It’s still very much in play, and once I finish Vol. IV’s final draft, and go through books V–VII again, I’ll probably take time to go write in VIII. In that final installment, I’ll be reducing the POVs to keep it clean and forward-focused. Right now, the count is looking to be around six to eight.
Some feedback has been given on what is written, and I was told, “The best book of the series by far.” This also came from someone who said each subsequent book became their new favorite until they read the next one. So, time will tell.
Last Minute Update:
The cover artist got back to me, and instead of waiting, I’m going to update here. Here’s the cover for the next book in the Warmaster Series!
Session timed out—we’ve spared what we could for intercepted transmissions. That’s all I got for this round—short, sharp, and sweet. I shall return…