I meant to make this post about twenty days ago, but life , writing, and a full-time job tend to get in the way of website updates. Anyway, I just wanted to lay out the state of Soul Crystals here in 2022.
The big news is that Soul Crystals 3 is well on its way. Now, it hasn’t been passed off to my publisher for editing yet, but it has been progressing quickly. I am currently in the late stages on the my main draft. The plan for now is to release it at the end of this year. Private Dragon has a release slot open then, so we’ll see if we can hit that. I don’t want to make any exact promises, but I think everyone will have a copy in their hands before 2023. Definitely early 2023 at the latest. I don’t think three books in three years is too bad of an output. I’m not Stephen King, but at least I’m not George R.R. Martin. (Kidding. Martin is on of my top three favorite authors. I realize that A Song of Ice and Fire has about a dozen point-of-view characters and a half-dozen conflicts while I have one POV character and one conflict.)
So, what’s up with Soul Crystal 3? Well, it’s still SC3 since it doesn’t have an exact title yet. The past two titles have come during the editing process, so look for a title release sometime in the next few months. I do have a working title that I’m fond of, but I won’t spoil that in case it ends up being the official title. No spoilers for the plot either. It does pick up only a few days after the end of The Mask of Tragedy, so there won’t be any massive time jumps. I won’t reveal anything else. Let’s just say I’ve been spending some time on a mysterious island lately.
Alright, now you know all about my progress on Soul Crystals 3. What comes after SC3? Well, I’ve always planned on Soul Crystals being a trilogy, so SC3 is the end of the main storyline. The adventures of Paul, Alice, Robby, Camilla, and the rest come to end with this one. It’s going to be bittersweet to finish the series. This has been my first published book series. ARC of the Amuli was the first book I ever wrote to completion period. A big chunk of my 20s have been devoted to writing this series, so it will almost be like missing a piece of myself. At the same time, I am ending the series exactly the way I want to. After a certain movie recently, it occurred to me that I really detest belated sequels. I think that after a series has had one ending, storylines get too tangled when attempting bring new life to the plot. Plus, it’s hard to capture the magic of a story years later when you are in a different state of mine or stage of life. So, don’t expect Soul Crystals 4 years from now. If it does happen, you are free to mock me about it.
None of that is to say that the Soul Crystals universe is finished and that there are no stories left to tell. I have written some chapters of a potential prequel story. I don’t know if anything will come out of it, but it will likely be my next project after Soul Crystals 3. Obviously, there is no release date, title, or even a greenlight from my publisher on that one yet. It is still in the embryonic stage.
Soul Crystals was been my main focus for the early point of my writing career. It was the story that I wanted to tell the most. On the other hand, I have a lot of other ideas, too. Short stories, novels, novellas, full series, etc. I’ve even been exploring a few, posting a couple of short stories on Reddit. You can check out my social media to read them or listen to the various YouTubers who have read them. I’ve even added an Instagram account this past year.
So, there’s a lot to look forward to. Thanks for reading and supporting me. I couldn’t do it without you.
LaTrobe Barnitz 