If you’ve been following this blog, you’re probably wondering why I haven’t posted anything since June, when I published The Deadly Design. In case this is the first blog post you’ve read, I also write under my real name in Sci-Fi as Frank DeCaire, and I was busy writing a Daphne Blazefire book called Shadows in the Bloodline. That was the seventh book in that series, and I have plans to write an eighth book (called Dust Bargain). But, right now, I’m knee-deep into the rough draft of a new series that I plan to start for my Sci-Fi genre, and that book is called Frozen Logic, which is part of a series titled The Chronicles of the Robot Whisperers.
Current Plans
I’m pretty strict with my plans and schedules, so currently I’m committed to publishing Frozen Logic by the end of September, then writing Dust Bargain after that. That will put me somewhere near the end of November (I don’t have a schedule set up for Dust Bargain yet; I’m just estimating 2 months). Then I’m open to starting a new book, and I will probably do another Q Mystery book in December. I know, that’s a long time from now, but believe me when I say that it’ll be 2026 before you know it.
My original plans were to advertise the Q Mystery series and evaluate their performance to tell me which genre to write in first. The Q Mysteries did not sell as well as I expected. That could be due to a lot of different factors. Too few books for Elliot Droit. The Facebook Ads didn’t find the right audience (I’m betting that is the case). The sub-genre doesn’t ring with many people. And who knows what else contributes to a failed set of books? Usually, I just move on to the next big thing, but I have a whole genre here to play with, and my options include running more Ads to see if I can get Facebook to connect the right people to the Q Mystery series, and I can write a few more to expand the set.
The other reason I plowed ahead with Sci-Fi is that the Daphne Blazefire series went crazy as soon as I dropped a rewrite of the first book. Novis Terminal seems to hit the right note to bring in people who want to read humorous robot books. For the first time since I started publishing (2020), my Facebook Ads are profitable, and people coming in from the Ads are reading more than just the Daphne books, so they’re hungry for more of the same, which is where I came up with the robot whisperers idea. I’m hoping to develop another series that attracts readers to that sub-genre.
Of course, the Q Mystery Ads might finally find my audience for the Q Mystery series (which is probably why you’re reading this right now), and that means that I need to get more books out there, especially for the KU readers who devour books.
I should know the results by November. In the meantime, I’ll keep December open, with the possibility of another Q Mystery.
Also, if you really like the Q Mystery series and want to see more, just sign up for the newsletter and reply to the emails. I’d like to hear from readers. What do you think of the Q Mysteries? Good, bad, whatever.