Writing updates, scheduling stuff, and book & short story releases

I’m like the busiest guy I know.

I usually work on one novel at a time, and that takes about 4-6 months. During that I’ll take breaks of a couple of days at a time to write short stories. I’ll sometimes squeeze a few different small projects in between novels. My writing pace tends to start slowly, averaging about 2k a day, until I get into the middle to the end of the book, and then I average about 5k. And it is when I’m doing the finale stuff that I get those crazy word count days you see me post about on Twitter and Facebook.

Since short stories tend to be all middle to finale, I will write a 5 or 10k short in usually a day or two, but that is usually after I’ve let the idea percolate in my head, and not counting any researching time.

Editing is a little different for me, and though I actually go through it rather quickly, editing is work, while writing is fun. So when I finish a book, I’ll usually put it aside for a few weeks, then come back at it with a fresh perspective. It is too easy to miss mistakes when you are too close to a book.

So let’s catch up on what I’ve got going on.

I recently had a novel come out from Privateer Press set in the Warmachine universe, however you don’t need to be familiar with Warmachine to enjoy this. Think steampunk Dirty Dozen, only with heavily armored knights wielding mad science lightning swords and giant steam powered fighting robots.

Into the Storm: http://rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=monshuntnati-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B00EUSMLLE

Into the Storm (2)

My next book release is for Swords of Exodus, the sequel to Dead Six. The physical books will be out next week. The eBook is already out.

http://rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=monshuntnati-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B00F8NT672

Swords of Exodus

Seriously, this one rocks. Check it out. It follows Valentine and Lorenzo again and picks up after D6.  Exodus is a secret organization that specializes in killing human traffickers, and then need Valentine for a crazy mission against the scariest warlord in the world.  SPOILER ALERT!  Val wound up in a secret prison at the end of D6, run by the shadow government. So of course, who could possibly have the skills neccesary to spring him? Lorenzo. 🙂

After that, I’ve got a short story in this anthology:

https://skullislandx.com/warmachine/called-to-battle-volume-one

I don’t know the release date yet, but it has me and Howard Tayler in it, so you know you want it. I get to write about the guy who is the ultimate sniper/assassin and his hit against a rogue wizard. 🙂  (holy crap, I love my job).

Right now I’m working on Monster Hunter Nemesis, (as in Agent Franks vs. The World). It is scheduled to come out Summer 2014.  I’m expecting to have it done by the end of the year.  Next big novel in line after that is the long awaited post apocolyptic steampunk collaboration with John Ringo. After that will be the first novel in my epic fantasy series that I sold to Baen.

Speaking of that epic fantasy series, I do have a short story set in that universe written, called Keeper of Names. It is my first foray into a really dark, violent world. I grew up on epic fantasy like Brooks, Eddings, and Feist, so I’m excited for you guys to see my attempt at the genre. (okay, Grimnoir is sort of epic fantasy, but you get my meaning!) I turn the typical “descendant of the great hero will rise to defeat the big bad prophecy” trope on its head. 🙂 You’ll be able to read it next year in the Shattered Shields anthology of military fantasy stories from Baen.

On the topic of anthologies… Holy moly, now this is where it starts to get a little crazy.

I will be in Space Eldritch 2 with a story called Dead Waits Dreaming. You might remember that I wrote the forward for Space Eldritch 1 and Book Bombed it.

http://rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=monshuntnati-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B009Y5S5G8

It is a fantastic anthology of Lovecraft meets space opera. I had so much fun reading that one that I had to make time to be in the second. Dead Waits Dreaming came out pretty darn good, as it is just creepy, gross, nasty, and weird. And the hard part for me was that it is straight up horror. I’m not a horror writer. I write horror situations and creatures, but my protagonists tend to be strong people, so it turns into action with monsters, and I’m cool with that. Dead Waits Dreaming is my attempt at actual horror, and I’m pleased with how it turned out.

There are two Kickstarters going on right now involving short fiction written by me

Tracy Hickman’s Soujourner Tales boardgame: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/trhickman/tracy-and-laura-hickmans-sojourner-tales-board-gam?ref=live

I’ll be doing a Grimnoir story for it. The game is a very cool idea. So basically I’m writing a Choose Your Own Adventure type story, which can be played through on the board game. That said, it is going to be a straight up Grimnoir story. Once Tracy’s KS is fulfilled I’ll have the actual story for sale.

Kaiju Rising:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1089607742/kaiju-rising-age-of-monsters-anthology?ref=live

I get to write a giant monster story for this one. And if you really want to get geeky, you can even pick a pledge level where you get a stuffed kaiju for your kids. 🙂

kaiju

But wait… There’s more… No. Seriously. But I’m not sure what I can announce or not, as I’ve not seen them come out in public. I will say that I’m going to be in quite a few anthologies next year… Like all of them. I’m not joking. If I told you how many shorts I’ve written or will be writing for different projects you wouldn’t believe me. I’m really excited to be doing stuff with authors that I really expect like Kevin J. Anderson and Jonathan Maberry.

Yeah, that whole quitting the day job and freeing up an additional 40 or 50 hours a week? Let’s just say that I don’t have any more free time than I did before. 🙂

Okay, so now back to books. Yesterday Mike Kupari came over and we sat down and worked on the detail outline for the last book of our trilogy, and the next book, which we’ve been calling Project Blue, thought I don’t know if that will be the final name, is going to be incredibly badass. Like holy moly, I can’t believe you went there, badass. these characters have been tested, punished, they’ve grown, and been punished some more. In the third book we’ve reached full on Man on Fire territory, and it is time for them to paint their masterpiece. It is going to be wicked cool.

On Friday I had an all day meeting with another author where we created a detail outline for another collaboration project, but I can’t say anything about that one yet at all. This is not from any of my regular Baen stuff however, as this is an interesting side project that popped up as an opportunity. But on Friday though, we came up with something amazing, and holy crap, it is going to be awesome.

Now, if you read all of this stuff and think, but darn it, Correia! I really like your (insert series X here) the best! And that’s the one you should be working on instead of (insert inferior series Y here)! Except that’s not really how it works for me. I grind through a novel in about 4-6 months regardless. That’s about how fast my brain works on any given big project. Even if I don’t write any other little things during or between that, it doesn’t change the fact that that is how long my brain takes to create a novel. If anything suffers during this process, it is the consistency of my blogging. 🙂

Okay, so all of that written, off the top of my head I am currently contracted for 16 novels, which I should be delivering at a rate of about 2-3 a year. I believe I’ve got 4 or 5 shorts written which you’ve not seen yet,

The Internet Arguing Checklist
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18 thoughts on “Writing updates, scheduling stuff, and book & short story releases”

  1. Just wanted to say that I just finished the 3rd book of your Hard Magic series. Which… I listened to after listening to the MHI series. I really really liked both of them, the narrators really did well! Thanks for the great entertainment Sir! Much appreciated. 🙂 I’m not sure if this link will get through or not… but I thought you might find this interesting, or at least a heckuva coincidence.

    https://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/20130917-a-jewel-at-the-heart-of-quantum-physics/

  2. Oh balls. I was desperately hoping the Ringo collaboration was going to be some kind of “Correia in Space” adventure.

  3. Dang that’s impressive.
    Take your wife out for dinner. She deserves it. 🙂 Also, hide your club, lest she try to knock some sense into you.

    (Naturally, we don’t mind you being a workaholic.)

  4. I have faith you will keep us posted on the anthologies released that have your work. I’m particularly looking forward to Space Eldritch II, for both your story and Howard Tayler’s sequel to “Flight of the Runewright”.

    My wife and I enjoyed your presence at LibertyCon this year, and we are looking forward to Huntsville’s Con*stellation in October – rumor has it the Guest of Honor is a Really Big Geek 🙂

  5. Though I’ve enjoyed all of your fantasy work Dead Six hooked me to the wall. Looking forward to Swords of Exodus.
    Keep typing…….and painting.

  6. I would buy more of your works on e-book format. well twice once for me once for the missus. but damn it all to the kudzu infested back lot of MHI your not on kobo. and I’m not getting an ipad or a kindle just to feed my addiction.

    1. Baen has his novels and a few short stories in all formats directly from their site.
      “other vendors'” DRM can be stripped and formats changed with some free software if you are somewhat technically savvy. The only one that’s a real problem is Apple’s FairPlay.

  7. That means there is at least 5-8 years of Correia to look forward to?

    That’s more awesome than a werewolf killing snowblower, and that was pretty f’n awesome.

  8. “Okay, so all of that written, off the top of my head I am currently contracted for 16 novels, which I should be delivering at a rate of about 2-3 a year. ”

    Unless you go John Ringo on us – a definite hazard, given that you’re working with him – and suddenly get a bizarre urge to drop everything in order to get some insane story about a sadomasochistic SEAL out of your head or something.

    Which would really suck, especially as I’m already trying to find space in my budget for your projected literary output for the rest of the decade.

    Heck, between you, Stephen Hunter, Jonathan Maberry and David Weber, I’m likely to go broke…

    😛

  9. Larry,

    I’ve read all the MHI books and all the Grimnoir books (or, more accurately, listened to them). I’ve just now earmarked Dead Six and Swords of Exodus as well as Into the Storm but I’m not sure where to go next. Which of your writings would you recommend I move to after having read MHI and Grimnoir?

    Will there be anymore Grimnoir novels in the future?

    Keep up the good work. I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that I’m really glad you were able to make the move to writing full time, that just means more great sci-fi/fantasy/action/adventure/crazy monster goodness for me. 🙂

    Justin

  10. I remember a while back you were talking about a story idea for a reality show set in The Not Too Distant Future where teams competed to overthrow the government of a small African nation. Is that one off the schedule now?

      1. Awesome. I have a few friends who don’t read very much genre fiction or none at all, and when I have mentioned that rough outline they all have seemed very interested.

        Anyway, like I always say, Larry, you keep not sucking and I’ll keep buying.

  11. Thank you for the update, I have read the MHI books (Twice so far) and I am savoring the last Grimnoir title so that I have something that I enjoy hanging over my head to keep me going until the next Dresden File, Honorverse, MHI or Song of Fire and Ice release comes out.

  12. I’m going to be that guy. But I love your MHI stuff I want more.

    Okay with that out of my system, I’m looking forward to the work you have on deck. Agent Franks vs The World sounds perfect. Franks has become one of my three favorite MH characters. Swords of Exodus should be pretty good. Plus, I’ve always wanted to get in to steam punk and just couldn’t. Now there will be Larry Correia Steam Punk. That might just be the ticket.

    It is a big jump from selling books on THR. I’m glad to see you’re making it pay off.

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