And in 2021 I will have for you …

Artist in Residence, Quarantine Diaries

I’ve been deep in the throes of plotting and planning and behind-the-scenes stuff, so let me bring you up to speed.
My newest novel, ‘The Second Star’, came out in July. I just got the royalties statement for the launch period and it’s eye watering – I haven’t seen these numbers since … well, for a very very long time. I’m really very happy with the performance of my first true, real, serious, science fiction novel. I did have an earlier humorous one that I wrote for a lark and as a fond tribute to SF fans and cons – “AbductiCon”.
I currently have a bunch of projects on the back burner which is getting rather crowded with pretty story pots, But WIP that I’m working on right now is another science fiction novel. I have some good ideas for it but I just need to string them all together … I’m working on it, I’m working on it.
But I’ve been rather distracted with other stuff – avatars of books past.

I’m gearing up for the release of the omnibus edition of ‘The Were Chronicles’ trilogy which be available both in ebook and print editions Dec 8.
Fifty books of the print edition will be signed and numbered collector’s item copies. Anyone who wants to own one of these can send me an email via my website (AlmaAlexander@AlmaAlexander.org) “NUMBERED BOOK” in the subject line, or via my FB webpage, or in whatever manner of communication you choose. This is going to be an amazing volume. It’s been reshaped and re-edited into a vivid and pacey story – I love these books. Please keep them in mind when you are thinking the gifts for the holidays.
And then we’re into next year and I’m working on a number of projects for 2021.
There’s the Val Hall collected edition volume – a single volume edition of all the Vall Hall stories, the “Even Years” and “Odd Years” books you know from right here on BVC, but there are going to be  at least five brand new stories in this full edition, “Val Hall Century”. I have grown rather fond of my superheroes, third class. I hope there’s some love for them out there when “Century” arrives.
In early April of 2021 I am tentatively planning on a new fairy tale collection. I haven’t a name for the book yet but I am planning on releasing it around Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday. Consider it a tribute. Fairy tales are what all of us wake to when we start becoming aware of stories, and they’re what shape us – Grimm, Andersen, Oscar WIlde, the retellings of Jane Yolen, Catherynne Valente, Theodora Goss, so many others.
My first published book was a slim collection of fairy tales – and it went into nine printings and lingered on for a couple of decades and a generation or two of readership before fading away – you’ll get those stories in this book, plus a number of retellings of tales you’ll recognize, plus a bunch that I just made up out of whole fairy tale cloth, as it were. But it’s going to be quite the book.
In other news – and this may be in 2021 or even in early 2022 – a fat fantasy novel is coming your way – “Changer of Days”, finally presented the way it should always have been done, in a single volume. I cannot WAIT to share that one with everybody, to finally give the world the book I wrote before it was chopped up and published in a duology which never quite fit together the way it should. I’ll rework it, refresh it, re-edit it, but this is my first true and epic fantasy and once I have all the rights safely back in the fold and all the ephemera sorted out to my satisfaction I will take great delight in putting it out in the world in the shape it was always meant to wear. But it’s going to take some work to get this wrapped in the sort of package I want it to be in.
I am going to re-release my Worldweavers books, “Gift of the Unmage”, “Spellspam”, “Cybermage” and “Dawn of Magic” – for any of you who want to introduce YA readers to something OTHER than Harry Potter, please keep these books in mind. They’re in process right now – but I still need to sort the covers, and it’s going to take a while for that to happen to my satisfaction. So I’ll update that process as it unfolds.
Would I have all this up in the air if the pandemic/quarantine/all this focused “stay at home” time had not hit? I don’t know. But there you have it. I’m awash in words. Keep tuned.

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