Weekly Update: 2025's TAGD Publishing Plans and Some Fiction Recs
Happy Friday, Darklings!
This is more like a semi-weekly update while I’m taking a break to work on the next season of Sons of God. BUT I have more or less nailed down my publishing schedule for the rest of the year here at TAGD, and I wanted to let you know what you can expect in the coming months:
1st Quarter (January-March): This first quarter has been all about getting my feet wet writing new fiction again, after a two-year break. That resulted in Sleep, Dearie, Sleep as well as Candy Crush and a sci-fi/horror short that I submitted to an anthology and am waiting to hear back on.
2nd Quarter (April-June): The next quarter will mainly be all about Sons of God Season Two, Daughters of Men. It will likely start in mid-April and run through May, and possibly into June. If I have any time left after it’s done, I hope to write one or two more short stories before diving into my next long-form work, one of which may check back in with Keelie Brewster to see what she’s been up to since The Box.
3rd Quarter (July-September): I’m planning to use high summer and the lead-up into spooky season to serialize the first novel in my Dominion of the Damned trilogy, Desolation. That’s in order to buy me time to write the first several chapters of my first full-length novel in two years, which I will be posting here in serial format in the…
4th Quarter (October-December): If all goes as planned, then this final quarter will be all about writing and posting this novel, tentatively titled Blacker than Coal. I don’t want to say much about it yet, but I can tell you this much: it was inspired way back in 2018 on my first trip to this part of the Ozarks, when I came to check out the house which ended up being our home up until August 2023, and it can best be described as Tuck Everlasting meets Beautiful Creatures set against the backdrop of the 1980s Satanic Panic in small town northern Arkansas.
And then I’ll likely take a break to enjoy the holidays, rest up and gear up for Sons of God Season Three: Powers and Principalities!
So that’s the plan! Of course, you know the old saying: if you want to make God laugh…. So we’ll see how it goes. At any rate, I’ve got two out of three segments of Daughters of Men episode three written, plus the two preceding episodes in their entirety. I’d like to have at least four or five episodes fully written and ready to go, plus the rest of the season’s outline nailed down, before I start posting, to give myself plenty of cushion. At this rate, kicking off in early-to-mid April is looking completely doable.
In the meantime, here are some great reads from the greater Substack fiction community to help tide you over:
I can’t pick just one story. His Killstarter is a must. But so are Provider and The Beautiful Country. Seriously, this guy’s on a roll. And his music’s pretty great, too.
This is a two-parter that is completely absorbing with an ending I didn’t see coming. If you like quiet, beautifully-written folk horror that sneaks up on you, this is your bag.
I’m slowly becoming a fan of Brian Rendell, as well. This piece leans more toward humor and satire than his usual work, but I thought it was pretty great. I also quite enjoyed Sweetwater Cafe and Old Sammy Boy.
If you’re in the mood for something longer, I’m pretty sure you’ll love this gothic detective story set against the backdrop of a Victorian circus.
And also…
I’m not generally a big fan of the werewolf genre, but I am a fan of gothic horror, and this puts a spin on the werewolf mythos unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I’m slowly working my way through this one and savoring it as I go.
Alrighty, that’s it for this update!
Until next time,
♥️ Jean
