Anytime you don't hear from me in a few weeks, it's a safe bet that I'm writing. That's really the only thing I go into seclusion to do. If I'm on vacation, I'm usually still online, because a vacation without Internet is no vacation at all.

So thanks to all this writing, I can now safely announce that Of Darkness and Dawn will be released on August 11th...which just so happens to be my birthday.

What present could I get that's better than a book release? A pony, but that's beside the point.

Therefore, as I discussed a few months ago, Of Dawn and Darkness will be released in September. I'd give a more specific date, but I want to leave you in agonizing suspense.

I've said this before, but there's one main reason why I'm not releasing this pair together: because of the way Amazon releases work. It felt like the last dual release competed with one another, which is counterproductive to both of them, so I'm trying to release the books a few weeks apart.

Hopefully that will solve the problem, but whether it does or not, I've learned something! Hooray for experimentation!

So in anticipation of all this, here's the cover for the upcoming Of Darkness and Dawn!

Take one down, pass it around...

On second thought, please don't take one down.

But hey, we're currently showing ninety-nine combined Amazon reviews of the Elder Empire books! That's awesome! And coincidentally, there are 699 Likes on my Facebook page! THE ERA OF THE NINETY-NINE HAS BEGUN.

Thanks for your support, and to honor that, I promise I'm working as hard as possible on Of Dawn and Darkness / Of Darkness and Dawn. Honestly, I'm feeling slightly guilty over the time off I've taken to write this blog post.

So before I get back to writing, I wanted to remind you that I did something a little special for the first 25 and 50 reviews. For twenty-five, I posted an early draft of Shadow's original prologue, starring everyone's favorite global Emperor. For fifty, I wrote a cliffhanger-y teaser chapter involving Valin and Simon.

So...we're one away from 100.

Any suggestions?

First, a progress report on Of Dawn and Darkness!

I'd estimate I'm about 30% done with the whole process. It's planned out and I'm happy with it, I've figured out most of the tie-ins with Book(s) 3, and I've written much of the flashback storylines. 

But I have an idea this time, and I thought I'd run it past you. There were some issues at launch last time, releasing two books at once. Those of you who follow the blog and the Facebook page figured it out, but there were a lot of random people coming in from Amazon browsing or Reddit that were confused. They couldn't figure out which one to read first, they didn't understand when I gave them two titles instead of one, and as a result I spent as much time dealing with complications as I did actually launching the book.

Which, of course, was half the fun in doing this in the first place. But this parallel trilogy thing is an experiment, and I'd like to adjust the parameters for this go-round.

So this time, I'm considering launching Of Dawn and Darkness and Of Darkness and Dawn separately. Not too far apart--maybe four to six weeks apart, I'm thinking, probably with a pre-order option--but releasing them one at a time. They still take place at the same time, two halves of the same story, same drill, but I can focus on promoting one and then the other. Also, anyone buying them at launch will naturally read them in a certain order.

This has the added benefit of allowing me to finish one book, launch it, and then focus on polishing up and putting the finishing touches the second time. With the result that the first book gets launched sooner than would otherwise be possible.

But as I said, I'm not committed to this yet. What do you think? The artistic part of me is somewhat disappointed about ruining the whole double-release aesthetic, but it will effectively be the same after the first couple of weeks. Only the people who are buying it at launch will be affected...which means YOU, most likely, if you're reading this.

So let me know your thoughts and opinions in the comments!

As a side note, these books focus primarily on the Luminian Order and the Blackwatch, who take lead roles in Of Dawn and Darkness and Of Darkness and Dawn, respectively. However, I'd also like to bring a few other Guilds to the forefront, especially since the Blackwatch got a little time in the spotlight in OSAS.

Therefore, a second question: what Guilds would you like to see in action? If it catches my imagination enough, I can probably still make it happen.

And, as always, thanks for reading!

You know, it's very difficult to write two books at once. One might even say...twice as hard.

I knew it would be hard, but man, it's a real killer. I have to keep all the detailed events and little character traits consistent within both parallel books, so I'm constantly looking at everything from twelve different angles to make sure I didn't miss anything. Not only that, but because all of the flashbacks happen before the current timeline in book(s) one, I have to make sure that every little thing that happens in flashback is consistent with what we see in the present.

It's tough. If I were to write all of the Elder Empire books at once, it would have been way easier to write the flashbacks first, and then simply move on to the main storylines. But even then, keeping Calder and Shera's storylines parallel, but intersecting just enough, and yet distinct enough so that they feel like two different stories...

I would say that I've bitten off more than I can chew, but I can chew a lot! Seriously, too much. It's disgusting.

Anyway, the books are absorbing most of my attention these days, but there's more than that going on. First, I just ordered the first physical copies of Of Sea and Shadow and Of Shadow and Sea! That's the last step before I upload them to Amazon for sale, so assuming that nothing goes wrong, they'll be available very soon!

And I'm still working on the House of Blades audiobook, as I announced last time. I have no idea how long that takes, having never put up an audiobook before, but we'll learn together.

Now, for both of you who have read this far in the blog, I have a question. I'm expecting Dawn / Darkness to be out this summer, but I'm still early enough in the process that I can include a few little Easter eggs.

If enough people agree on what to put in, I can hide some little inside jokes or references in the second book that only those of us savvy enough to follow the blog will catch.

So, back to that question: any suggestions? Any little lines, suggestions, or cameo references I can/should make in ODAD?

Let me know in the comments!