Time for an update on extras – both how I think about them and where you can get them.
Extras
Extras are one of the terms for, well, extra bits of writing. Different authors approach them in different ways. It can be bits cut out of the final work, or it can be a treat for readers. It can be things the author had to write to figure out how something in the main novel/novella/whatever went. Often it’s more than one of these at once.
Some authors never share these. Some of us (hi, that’s me), share more.
Most of my extras happen because I needed to figure out what was happening in the background during the plot of the published novel or novella.
Sometimes it’s a side character, who isn’t a point of view in that book but whose later reactions are going to matter to the plot. Sometimes it’s wanting to see how characters feel about a specific piece of information. Sometimes it’s pinning down a larger thread in the world that’s going to matter in a later book in the writing stack. Sometimes it’s just stuff that didn’t fit into the narrative flow of the book.
For me, they’re often things that don’t have a strong plot connecting them, instead a series of scenes that are illuminating but don’t always have a strong story nature in terms of moving a plot forward or developing a character in key ways.
Sometimes I just want to spend more time with these characters. That’s good too.
Some of my extras are short – a couple of thousand words. Some are novella length, with several around 30k. I have at least one novel-length extra in the early stages. (Though I won’t be releasing that as a complete version for a while yet. The last part relates to a book I’m expecting to write in 2025. More below!)
Getting extras
You can now get most of my extras without signing up for anything. Just click the link for the ones you want and download them. (There are two exceptions, more about that in a second.)
The complete list is available on my authorial wiki. That index page has a brief summary. You can click through to learn more about what’s involved and get the download link. These are via BookFunnel, and you can get an ePub file or a PDF, whichever you’d rather. (I also share how long the extra is. If you prefer to read short things as a PDF and longer things as an ePub, pick whichever work for you.)
Special treats as a thank you
I do want to have something a little special to thank people who’ve connected with me as an author in various ways. Because of that, there are two extras that are just for people who’ve signed up for my newsletter, who’ve joined us on the Discord, or who are a patron (at any level) on Patreon.
One of the thank you extras is whatever the most recently released extra is.
As I write this in January 2024, that’s As The Ground Shifts, an extra focusing on Claudio and Orion (but with appearances by a lot of other people) between the middle of Illusion of a Boar to Three Graces. But again, you can always find the complete list on the index of the extras.
As new extras come out, the new one will be a thank you to people who follow and connect with me, and the previous extra will be readily available for everyone, no need to sign up for anything. (Again, you can find them all at my authorial wiki.)
The other is Ancient Trust, the prequel novella where Carillon and Benton return to Albion after the death of Carillon’s older brother and sister-in-law.
You’re welcome to sign up for my newsletter, get those links, and unsubscribe. (Just please don’t mark my messages as spam!) I hope you’ll stick around though. That’s also where I share tidbits about writing in progress, interesting historical links, and all the news.
Extras I have in mind
So what’s coming in 2024? I have a number of extras in progress.
Perfect Accord
First, there will absolutely be one related to Perfect Accord when it comes out in February. Unusually, it will be available as soon as that book comes out (a link from the author’s notes and in the usual places to find extras). That one is two conversations, about 5k in total, that take place at the end of the book, off-screen.
Extras in progress for patrons
Over on Patreon, my patrons (again, any level) are getting an early peek at two different sets of extras every month in 2024. These are all precursors to other books. They don’t include spoilers for books that aren’t out yet in any specific way.
They’re also unedited other than a quick pass to catch obvious typos and other glitches. All of them will have some edits in the final version for consistency, things I noticed while writing other things, etc. Eventually, when they’re complete, I’ll share the whole thing in a single tidy file.
The sections for these seem to be running somewhere around 2k to 3k words. Each section is self-contained in the sense of being a single scene, but again, not necessarily full of plot and story nature.
These include:
Schola Tales: a series of scenes from four students in their first year at Schola: Leo Fortier (son of Thesan and Isembard Fortier), Ros Carillon (daughter of Geoffrey and Lizzie Carillon), Avigail Edgarton (daughter of Gabe and Rathna Edgarton), and Jasper Pride (son of Rufus and Ferry Pride.) I’ve been sharing scenes for this that I wrote as part of figuring out where these four started so I could write The Magic of Four, coming out in May 2024.
Ritual Time: A series of scenes (one a year, basically) for Cyrus Smythe-Clive’s time as Head of the Council until his retirement from that position. As you might guess, this also contains a fair bit of Mabyn, Rhoe, and in due course Alexander, among others.
And if we run out of those, I’ve got a series of precursors for Ursula Fortier’s romance called A Fox on the Hunt. I’m also working on a novel-length character study of Silvia Warren, called A Foolish Consistency. I may start sharing chapters from both before the end of 2024, but Silvia’s can’t be finished until I write Claudio’s romance in 2025. I can however easily share the parts earlier in her life.
Extras for published books
I also have other extras in the works:
- Seeking A Wife: A sequence of failed attempts to find someone to marry, in Geoffrey Carillon’s life from 1922 until the events of Goblin Fruit in 1924.
- Together With A Common Goal: What Arthur and Melusina were up to during the events of Carry On.
- A sequence for Old As The Hills and Upon A Summer’s Day (I keep trying to finish one or two more bits that would help the internal arc, and haven’t quite managed it).
All of these depend on when we can get the editing time together for them. For what I hope are obvious reasons, Kiya and I give priority to the publishing sequence. I’m hopeful we’ll get these out, ideally in the first half of 2024.
Got something you’d love to see?
Do you have a character you hope I might spend some time with? A scene you’d really love to see? Drop me a note (reply to any newsletter or use the contact form) and let me know.
I make no promises, but I am sometimes highly motivated by a question about a specific thing.
