The Second Book in the Foundations Anthology is Completed!!!

About two minutes before I started working on this post, I finally finished the rough draft of Project Two (codenamed Red Empress) in the Foundations Anthology.

Holy shit.

That was tough.

Red Empress is set in a post-apocalyptical tribal society, where the descendants of refugees from the last age have carved out a life for themselves among the ruins of a long dead, high technology civilization. When Nakuri, a lawkeeper with the authority to exert her power across tribal boundaries, arrests the man responsible for slaughtering her childhood home, she finds that the powerful have dangerous friends, and the rule of justice is not quite what she was led to believe. In desperation, Nakuri turns to something far larger and far darker than she understands.

When I initially conceived Project Two, I had one very specific goal; push myself beyond my comfort zone, to extend beyond the boundaries of what I was used to as a writer. I think I succeeded. There were parts of this story that were genuinely uncomfortable for me to write, mostly because I was treading new ground for myself, but that's a good thing! If it had been comfortable, if it had been familiar, that means I would have failed in my goals, that I wasn't pushing myself. There were points that were very difficult, and I am sure that would come across if you read the draft right now!

Fortunately, I have strategies ready to deal with the issues of this book. There are things I want to revise, things I want to revisit, entire scenes that need to be re-written or re-conceived. I'm okay with this. I've been keeping a running list of notes for this. It'll be a lot of work before I'm even willing to send it out to alpha readers, but I'll get it done.

In the meantime, I now have some breathing room. I have a compilation of beta-reader feedback on Hunter's Green that needs to get tended to. While I'm doing that, I'll finish writing the complete outline for Project Three. Once Hunter's Green has been beta-drafted and sent off for a line edit, I can turn my full attention to rough-drafting out Project Three. I'm really happy with the progress being made, and I can't wait to share my stories with you.

Check back soon for more updates!

Bennett