Gosh, the fourth book in my Kingdoms of Blood universe is coming along very well. The way I do my books is kind of weird, though. Red Viper and the Vampire War and The Vampire War: Conclusion are both linked and important to be read together. However, Cobratongue University: Spring Semester and Cobratongue: A Bloody Spring don’t require the Vampire War books to be understood.
I basically have two book series in the same universe, however they do technically go in order timeline-wise. The Cobratongue University series is standalone, in which the events from the wars aren’t required to be read beforehand. It sounds really complicated, though, now that I’m actually putting it down on paper. Oh well, it’s like two mini series.
I subscribe to the notion that reading Wars would give a better experience when going into the Cobratongue University series. However, as a magical school series with more slice of life stuff, the university series is a bit slower. It still has tons of action and gore though, but the tone is a tad different. Granted, it still highlights the dystopic nature of the Kingdoms of Blood urban universe, and how humans have fallen to vampires as dominant species.
Anyway, as of now I’m at roughly 21,000/50,000 words. By the time I finish with my goal, half of A Bloody Spring will be finished. I plan on working on my compendium of lore when I do reach my goal. I know leaving a project unfinished is unsavory, but I have so many lore ideas I need to put aside so I can reach my project goals.
I think using this blog to do tiny canon sidestories is also a pretty fun idea. I have no idea if other authors do such a thing, but I figure, why not? I can talk about my writing process, what inspires me, yadda yadda, but surely some bits of canon here and there would be fun for fans of my series.
Des M. Astor 