As of today, I’m sitting at about 30,000 words on Book II of Bel’s War. My imaginary schedule had me completing it by the end of December, and off to beta in January. I may still get it to beta in January, but it will be late January. That should still leave us on track for a release date sometime in the Spring, hopefully April or May 2022.
Writing the middle book of a trilogy (I think it’s still a trilogy?) turns out to be much harder than writing the first one. It’s more interesting in some ways- the story is coming together, but there are so many threads to weave together, and I find that the more I let it percolate the better the result is. In some ways, I’ve had to plan out book III now in order to chart how everything will fit together.
That, and I have to keep going back to the first book to see how I did X so that I can stay consistent (seriously, how many times do I have to re-read my own book?).
That being said, I’m having a fun time imagining what Turi and Rio get up to, and how the war goes. Demari gets his own adventure, and Sarina discovers there’s more to Trosika than she imagined (and that the Ishima aren’t quite done with it yet!).