Tao Wong
patreon
Business & Writing Update - February 2025
🕑 Added 2025-02-06 03:41:59 +0000 UTC
Alright, we got a lot to update, so let's get to it!
A Thousand Li (ATL)
Book 11 released last year, book 12 is going to release in July 2025. The first draft of the story is available for reading on the Patreon. We are waiting for a few things, including our slot with Travis Baldree for the recording; but thus far; readers who have finished the book are happy with how things have ended.
A Thousand Li Sequel
That's right, the sequel work to ATL is being written now. I'm tired of writing ATL Sequel so I'm just going to tell you that the name of the next series is Celestial Cataclysms (CC). Now, the first few chapters of CC 1 is coming out on Patreon too and I will say that it's a direct sequel to the world; but written in an epic fantasy format. So expect a much more expansive world (hah, did you not get that with the sequel name?) and a lot of familiar and new characters coming to play.
Currently, the plan is for a 9 book series. It might seem less; but let me tell you; each book of Celestial Cataclysms is going to be bigger than your average ATL book (currently, book 1 draft is already at 89k words and not anywhere near finished). I'm figuring at least 200k books here.
One thing, because the series is a departure from my usual writing style and because I want to give readers the best book I can, I'm sending it off to get developmentally edited before release. So release is going to be significantly later than the usual 6-7 month gap, even if I have the first draft ready.
Frankly, I expect book 1 drafts to be significantly different from final drafts. I might actually end up doing slower releases because of this, though I'm hoping not. We're also going to try do a BIG push when it comes out, and we'd ask all of you to help support getting the ATL world out to others.
System Apocalypse
The sequel to Head of the Class is currently at around 40k. We're expecting a release later this year, though Jason's had a bit of a slowdown due to real life issues. We're hoping to finish the planned trilogy in the next two years, which would mean we'd have 3 completed series in the universe (Kismet, the original and Liberty).
System Apocalypse: Relentless book 4 is also on the way. Craig wrote book 1 of his new series (Rift Warden - well worth reading) so the book 4 was delayed a little, but we should have a release later this year too. I hope you guys saw the new covers we have - they're smoking hot and super cool.
Otherwise, the only other big news is the System Apocalypse Omnibus Special Edition Kickstarter. That's right, we're creating a special edition for the original System Apocalypse series, and let me tell you; the artwork is amazing. We learnt a lot doing the first A Thousand Li special edition so I can say, confidently, this one is going to be sooo cool.
Hidden Dishes
Thaumaturgic Tapas - Volume 3 comes out soon. Super excited to see you all read the next book. We have some really fun recipes in there including some that have become part and parcel of my own regular rotation. The cozy cooking fantasy series continues to cook and we have 3-4 more volumes planned, releasing once a year.
Climbing the Ranks
We released the 2nd book of Climbing the Ranks last year and continue to release new chapters for book 3 on the website. If you haven't read them, you should. We're already working on book 4, and there's no real plan to stop writing the series. Mostly because there's a lot of internal demand (read my spawn loves the series) to keep it going.
Dungeon Brawler
And for those who are part of the Patreon, my new LitRPG that I've been hinting at, released this week. We're actually going to be shifting (probably) to releasing more chapters of this work within the next few months as we rejiggle our release schedule because of the complexity of writing CC.
Sorry about that. We might throw up a poll to ask Patreons what they prefer but expect to see more of that in the coming weeks.
Other Projects
Surprisingly, not a lot of other projects to mention. I have a short that I need to edit quickly and release or send out for submission. I have another short for the System Apocalypse I need to write when my brain frees up enough from editing mode to do that. And that's it, really.
The sheer amount of words I have to write in the next year (rough estimate - 1 million words) is going to keep me head down and focused rather than haring off into random directions.
Other Business News
So... I have an agent. Seth Fishman at Gernert Company took me on as client. We're talking to people but for obvious reasons, until contracts are signed, there's nothing to announce. Let's just say I'm pretty excited to announce them when they are finished. And that's really all I can say about it.
That's about it, other than the fact that I might be skipping out on Dragoncon and Worldcon and any other US conventions this year. Looking over the sheer amount of work I need to do (and how often I fall ill, especially when traveling); I have a feeling that I'm better off staying in Canada, head down and focused on putting fingers to keyboard rather than haring off everywhere.
Next year, hopefully, things will lighten up a little (though, having looked at the production schedule; it's more likely 2027 when things free up). Unless, of course, any of these books blow up to such an extent, it doesn't matter how fast I put them out... at which point I can slack off a bit.
Hint, hint. :P
Alright, feel free to drop any questions you might have. No promises that I'll answer them, but feel free to ask.
Comments
Tao Wong
Hmmm... that's a good question. Part of that is notes... I keep basically a small running journal at the bottom of each page for what the 'beats' of each character should be so that I can get them to the ending I have envisioned. It also helps that I have a known ending, so everything should move towards that for each character. If I was writing purely into the dark, I couldn't do this I think; because I wouldn't know what happened. Then world notes, series bible, etc questions help keep the worlds in place. I take a bunch of notes, get used to using the search function (and re-adding what I forgot to note down into the series bible for next time). A lot of world building or events might even pull from history or real world events, so I don't have to 'remember' the events, just relook up what happened in real life. Or take inspiration from them, so i know what I need to pull. Beyond that... I have a very good memory. 😦 Not useful I know. But for this kind of thing, I can remember a lot of it a lot of the time; though it helps to keep writing in the same universe. Don't ask me anything about Adventures on Brad and even System Apocalypse is fading....
Purkalicious
How do you keep yourself on track with your books I feel the amount of content and words you write is Faster than Stephen King 😂. I tend to lose focus after a couple pages so any insight on your focus would help.
