So I wrote a novel before my current project, and it was a pure scifi story about a number of parties hunting after an AI they wanted for their individual goals. The whole thing was about 60k words, the ending not written yet — I decided to move on to the Aes Sidhe novel instead.

I now dug it out again and flipped through it, to see whether it was something I\’d want to pick up again, and while going through my old outline, I decided I\’d rewrite one of the character arcs, which would make it fit in my Aes Sidhe universe as a prequel.

The theme is the same, nature, and how global warming destroys our planet. In this novel, I will tell the story of the Winter and Summer Courts and how they approach the problem in different ways. While the Summer Court wants to help mankind get over their internal struggles and act as one united entity, the Winter Court has given up on humanity and plans to enslave it to enforce its policies upon it.

The main protagonist will be a changeling named Makoto Suzuki. He\’s an agent of the Summer Court, working for the corporation the Winter Court plans to use to achieve its goals.

While Pendulum is a slower story, mostly sense of wonder in a man vs nature story, Emergent is a fast-paced thriller. The setting is more akin to cyberpunk, with humans living underground, because the surface is devastated by brutal weather conditions, with aviation completely impossible due to violent storms. The water level has risen, too, and swallowed many coastal towns and cities.

So I\’ll outline the new character arc, then edit and release Pendulum, then edit and release Emergent. Sounds like a nice schedule for February. If things go as I\’m currently imagining them, Emergent could be finished and released by March, but I\’m not going to rush it.

About 35k words can be used almost as-is (they do need editing though, but not a rewrite), while 25k need some heavy duty edits and/or rewrites. That\’s still easy going and only a month\’s worth of writing, but adding the editing process, it will turn out to roughly 6 weeks of work on the project.

Now, this is just my plan for now, I also need to develop the next story in the actual Aes Sidhe world, but this will do nicely to explain certain concepts, and why things are as they are. With this story being a thriller, it will be quick to write for me, too, because I\’m doing worse with the slow scenes – a reason Pendulum took me 6 weeks to write.