What the future holds

Today I took the plunge. I sent my manuscript to Amazon to sell as an ebook. From today forward I am no longer waiting around for people to respond to my attempts at being a writer. I am going to grab that title and wrestle it to the ground in whatever way I need to. I may never find an agent and have a book that goes the traditional publishing route, and that might not be a bad thing. Many people swear by self publishing. That said, I would be happy to land an agent if it ever happens.

Now that I have taken this major step, I decided to take a moment to talk about how I got here, and what the future will look like as I continue down this path. Hang on.

I have been telling stories since I was a little kid. I have lived in many worlds, both my own and those created by others. I have spent a substantial portion of my life with my face buried in a book. I even branched out into many of my other hobbies because of my love of stories. I started drawing and eventually studied graphic design because my stories needed pictures and those pictures weren't always available. I found tabletop roleplaying games where the whole point is to make a story among you and a group of friends. Youthful games on the playground where we pretended to be heroes lasted into high school. My life has always revolved around stories.

I started writing my first book in middle school. I wrote several chapters and turned them in for school assignments. I started my second book a year later. Neither of these stories ever saw completion, and what I had of them has been lost to time and fire. They only live on now in my mind, where they may one day grow again.

My first serious attempt at writing a book began in high school. This was shortly after Eragon came out. One of my teachers actually bought me the book as encouragement. She was my first beta reader for that story, and an able guide. The world lost her a few years ago, but my stories never have.

In college I eventually landed on English (big surprise) and History (the biggest story ever) as my majors. My second year of college I began the story that would grow into Bone Deep. The original idea came to me while working in the school kitchen during breakfast. I envisioned a scene where a vampire grabbed a woman in an alley. It wasn't exactly an original idea, but the presentation was key. The scene was written to sound like a rape right up until the point the reader realized that the attacker was a vampire feeding. That first scene has been softened a bit, but the original seed is still there. Sad to say it has been 15 years from that idea until now, but that story has finally been released.

So where do I go from here?

Bone Deep is the first book in a planned series that will cover at least five books and be written from the 1st person perspective of at least three different main characters. I have the first seven chapters of the next book finished. It is on my every growing work in progress pile. The rest of the books in this series are definitely something to look for in the future.

Works in progress: These are the books I am currently writing and intend to finish.

Walkers: The world is ruled by the Demon Lord and his immortal army. A young man discovers the truth of his past and his destiny on his nineteenth name day, the day the sun bleeds.

This is the book I started in high school. I got six chapters into it before it fell by the wayside. I have recently had a lot of inspiration to go back and finish it. This is the first book in a series that will be at least two books long. I will probably change the name.

Chaos Genome: A soldier falls from the sky into a city where the inner ring is ruled by the company and the outskirts are ruled by rival gangs. Where did he come from, and how did he survive the fall?

Dystopian sci-fi stuff. This story developed out of the story for my character Siege. It was originally set in the same world as Bone Deep, and shares some characters in different forms, but the stories diverged so much that they became separate entities. This story was originally planned as a webcomic, and then a screen play. I wrote the beginning as a television script before changing it to book format.

Chronicles of New Horizon: An overarching story set in the world of New Horizon. I lived in this world for almost a decade. The book will never see commercial release unless things change, but I still want to finish the story. I might take the seeds I planted and move them to a different garden to see if they will grow.

Other ideas that might grow one day. Things I would like to write but haven't started.

King Arthur/King David: The stories of these two kings share many similarities. I would like to take them and massage them into a new story.

12 God Madness: A story that treats the followers of gods in a way similar to sports fans. An annual competition is held to determine the top god. Twelve gods have ruled the tournament as the sole competitors for centuries. This time a mysterious new god enters.

The Bible: A historical and mythological walk through the bible.

There are always new stories sprouting in my mind, so this list is not complete and hopefully never will be.

About the Author:

Stephen Mayo lives in Montana with his wife, daughter, corgi, and three cats.

You can keep in touch with him on Facebook and Twitter. Find more on his podcast A Side of Mayo. If you enjoyed reading this consider buying him a coffee or supporting him on Patreon.