Category: Novels

A Long Overdue Update

Image of A.L.S. Vossler’s Funeral Folder taken 2019 by Chris Vossler

This update is coming far too late in the process, but it’s been far too difficult to make this public on this forum before now.

Tragically, A.L.S. Vossler (Amy) lost her decade-plus battle with Bipolar Disorder, Depression, and suicidal thoughts on December 5, 2018.  She had struggled to fight off the depression that threatened to drown her ever since her parents’ deaths in December 2017, but on that fateful night, the depression overwhelmed her.  Her death has left a gaping hole in the hearts of all who knew and loved her, one which will never be filled.

Amy left an enormous body of unfinished writings, from Scylla, the sequel to her debut novel Charybda, to two entire planned trilogies of books set in entirely different universes and working within entirely different magical structures.  And everything in between.  It will be impossible to publish these novels exactly as Amy intended – some are little more than basic story concepts – but I intend to publish as much as I can as best as I can.  Unfortunately, this means that there may be a long wait for books like Scylla to be published.

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Update

Here it is, November once again! And here am I, in the thick of NaNoWriMo once again! You might imagine that the fact I am doing NaNo may not speak well to the progress I am making on Scylla, and well, you would imagine correctly. I have not touched Scylla since mid-October. I have instead been working on non-fiction projects and my NaNoWriMo project, just as a way to distance myself from Scylla’s mess of a manuscript and hopefully come back with some fresh perspective once NaNo is over.

It is my goal to have Scylla (book 2 of the Worldstrait Duology) edited and ready to go for my beta readers by March of 2019, a goal which I fear may end up being too lofty. Nevertheless, it is the goal I have for now. I hope that 2019 will be a much easier year for me than 2018 was.

2018 was…simply horrible. It still may yet be. Though I plan on fully throwing myself back into working on Scylla once December begins, I also anticipate December to be, to say the least, a difficult month. It concludes with the anniversary of my parents’ death, and it will be my first Christmas without them. So, we will see how things go.

NaNo, however, is going swimmingly. So swimmingly, in fact, that I actually have time to write a brief blog post update. (Or…I might be using this to procrastinate working on my NaNo novel. Shh.) I am planning on finishing the day strong and on par at 20,000 words. This has, oddly enough, been one of the easiest NaNo years I have participated in. Maybe it’s because I have the process I know works for me? Maybe it’s because my novel is extra fun this year? Maybe it’s just an escape from the horrible reality that has been this year? Whatever the reason, I am having a blast and am looking forward to claiming my winner’s certificate at the end of the month.

Check out my novel Charybda, the story of Nivin, a blind girl who discovers she can see the swirling lights that make up portals to another world. How does she know that they are called Charybda? How can she explain the young man who emerges from one? Read the first chapter for free here or learn more here.