Today I “started” the next title in the Click Your Poison series, a High Seas adventure called Classically MAROONED. I say “started” because I’ve been researching and plotting this book for some time now, but only now has ink been virtually spilled on a word processor.
I know I said this book would be released in 2017, yet sadly, I must finally admit that it won’t. But, please bear with me, this is a good news post. My goal is 1000 words per day, which would put me at 100 days of writing. If you’d be so kind, let’s round that up to four months. Two more months of notes, rewrites, and editing; we could possibly have this book published in six months. That means we’re looking at Spring 2018 as a possible release.
Unfortunately, that makes this the first year since I started CYP that I won’t release a new title. Sure, I have excuses (moving halfway across the world, plenty of travel, working on a zombie screenplay with another screenwriter, as well as Rebooting the Star Wars prequels), but truth be told, I’m still very disappointed by this fact, as I imagine many of you are.
Yet the point of this post is to share excitement! Excitement that the writing (my favorite part!) has begun. I can already tell this will be a wonderful Click Your Poison volume. Classically MAROONED will share the research & realism of MURDERED, the humor & wit of INFECTED, the character development of PATHOGENS, the action & adventure of SUPERPOWERED, and of course, a special quality all its own.
To help you share in my excitement, let’s do the cover reveal first. Right now, in fact. Here it is!
Living in England provides a fantastic opportunity to set a book during the Golden Age of Sail within the British Empire, but why pirates?
I’d originally thought to do an adaptation of several literary classics (hence the “Classic” in Classically MAROONED), to re-tell Moby Dick and Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe in CYP form. But as I went through these stories, my usual idea fountain kicked off and I thought, “Why are you doing this? Because you want to tell someone else’s stories? For publicity? For ease of marketing? Write your own damn story, that’s why you do this. That’s why people read your work, because it’s told in your voice! Make your own world, do what you love because you love it, and the rest will come.”
So, I’m being true to myself, and loving the process. Day one: complete. 1223 words.
Thanks for reading! What do YOU think?
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Author James Schannep 
Great news! I’m a big fan of the Aubrey-Maturin series and love the setting in the golden Age of Sail. I’m really looking forward to this!
Glad to hear it! I’ve seen the Russell Crowe movie, but never read any from that series. Which one is your favorite?
If you want a recommendation for O’Brien’s A-M series, go from the start – Master and Commander. The series really profits from through-reading – more than any other true series I know. The stories can be independently read, but you just gain so much more from following the characters.
And the first one has some hilarious set pieces. Overall I think OB a pretty funny writer. But maybe you want to keep them until after Marooned is done!
Thanks for the tip! I suppose you might be right. I don’t want to end up writing A-M fan fiction 😉