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Monday, August 31, 2015

New Book Plans and Coming Full Circle

Hi, all!

The Door Within, my first novel, was published in 2005. But it began far earlier. In 1993, my third year of teaching, I gave my 6th grade students a short story writing assignment. Being the wonderfully cagey kiddos that they were, they challenged me to write a story as well. It just so happened (read "a God thing") that several deeply personal events had transpired in my life, things that fueled passion and story.



Seventeen pages of loose leaf paper later, written in green ink, The Door Within came to be. Of course, then, it was called "The Faith of a Child." Over the next ten years, my students continued to encourage me to write, to build The Door Within into something much greater. 2004 arrived. I obtained an agent and, after much toil and blessing, landed a contract with Thomas Nelson (now Thomas Nelson / Harper Collins).

Fast forward to 2015*. I'm beginning my 25th year of teaching, and I've got a unique opportunity. I've been given stewardship of a wonderfully small class of English Language Arts students who need a little extra help and motivation. And, the beautiful thing is, the course of study is pretty wide open so long as it supports the regular ELA curriculum. So...that gave me an idea. {Cue fiendish laughter and mustache twirling}



So, in order to amp the motivation, I've gone to my students and offered to write a novel just for them. I will work on it a chapter at a time and use it for the fictional / narrative components of the ELA curriculum. The kids were jazzed, so I set up an online poll where they could pick and choose aspects that they did / did not want in the story. Everything from quirks for the main character to creatures to theme. The results are in, and I've begun writing the tale. The story is code named:



I was thinking of putting the book up on Amazon as a series of shorts, 2-3 chapters at a time. It would be kind of like the old serial stories that used to be published in magazines. Of course, the story has to pass muster first. I have nine very serious editors who are ready and waiting to sink their collective teeth into anything I throw down for them to read!



*Yes, I've still got Dark Sea 3 "Mirror of Souls" in the pipeline. And yes, GHOST 2: Minister of Fire too. Fear not!

11 comments:

SamJ said...

Fun idea Wayne. Good luck with it!

Anonymous said...

I definitely want to read them.

Sparks of Ember said...

Hi, I have a random side-question. Are there any plans for The Tide of Unmaking to be released as an audio book like the first two in the series?

Anonymous said...

Hey that reminds me...
Way back in your early blogging years, you posted up some pictures of your first draft of The Faith of a Child. But I don't believe you ever finished... I think you were either on eight, or you were missing eight. It would be really-REALLY- great if you could post them up again.
-Mikayla

Anonymous said...

Hi Sir Batson, I love your books, though I am still working on the second Dreamtreaders book. A friend introduce me to The Door Within, and it immediately became my favorite book trilogy. (In fact I even stayed up all night reading Rise of the Wyrm Lord.) I though it tells what age some of the characters are, I wondered what ages the rest of them are? Like Nock, Mallik, Sir Organ, Oswyn, and a whole bunch of others. And did you ever decide what Grampin's first name was? If you have the time (though I know you don't have much extra) I wondered if you could say around what ages the characters are, I am sure that other people would like to know this as well, just thought I would ask.
Never Alone, Soli Del Gloria, M.F.W.

Anonymous said...

Hello,
your a great writer but pleazzzzzzzzz release the 3rd book in the dark annals book 3

Anonymous said...

Hello,
your a great writer but pleazzzzzzzzz release the 3rd book in the dark annals book 3

Anonymous said...

Omgggg!! My name is Mikayla too!! Spelt the same way! I've never met someone with the same spelling Omgg haha!

Anonymous said...

I have just gotten the book "the Final Storm" and I see that Aidan's Glimpse is not in this book. The last book "The Rise of the Wyrm Lord" left him in a pit. What came of Aidan's glimpse?

Love the books can't wait to read "the final storm". Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Happy new year (almost)! I have been looking for the mirror of souls forever, and I was wondering if there was a timeframe on when it is released...? Thanks:)

Anonymous said...

Happy new year (almost)! I have been looking for the mirror of souls info everywhere, and I was wondering if there was a timeframe on when it is released...? Thanks:)