B.T. Robertson News

WRITING UPDATE - December 18, 2009 - The Year in Retrospect
As 2009 winds down to a close, I'm reminded that this time is my favorite of each passing year. Christmas and the holiday season means different things to different folks with varying religious or nonreligious beliefs, but one thing stands true: it's a time of celebration and remembrance.

When I look at 2009 in retrospect, I think of the strides I've made in my writing career, which is just shy of seven years in the making. January 5, 2003 is the date I started writing Chronicles of the Planeswalkers, and it looks like early 2010 will mark the release of the third and final book of my inaugural series: Part Final: Alignment. Three books in seven years...I suppose that's not so bad for someone who doesn't write full-time. It's the end of an era, one which I'm more than proud of, but it's simultaneously the beginning of a new leg of my career. I've begun to work on outlining my next series, which will be set in the Planeswalkers universe. I'm planning on overhauling the whole concept of planeswalking by adding in more unique elements. Here's a teaser in the form of a new term: Planesreaching. As it implies, planesreaching will involve some new talents and abilities, and the series will introduce a whole new cast of characters while remaining true to the concepts and themes established in the first trilogy. One character will return from the first series in a big way. Can you guess who?

Excitement. That's the word to describe what I feel moving forward headlong into 2010. I rarely make promises, but I promise you, the readers and fans of my work, that I will have a rough draft of Book 1 - tentatively titled Reacher - completed in 2010. The preliminary work I'm doing now will only spur me on to telling a grander tale than ever before. I've never attempted this level of pre-writing. The main protagonists (yes, there are multiple), their abilities, characteristics, and relationships are all created; I've outlined several subplots; I'm fleshing out the overarching plot of the entire series, but also for each novel in the trilogy so they stand on their own; several locations are being developed; and finally, the creation of the primary antagonist and its minions are all underway. I'm not beholden to a specific word count for each novel, but I've established a baseline for each novel at 120,000 words (the size of book 3 in Chronicles of the Planeswalkers). In a word, this project is "huge", or at least larger than anything I've ever done before, professionally or personally.

Lastly, I want to take this time to thank you all for a great year. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours. May God bless you, this great nation, and people the world over.