Before I shadow dropped the new opening chapter for my revamped third book, I shared a roadmap and deadline of publishing the new version by July 4th. I probably won’t hit that deadline.

I’m not looking to rush anything, force anything, or otherwise compromise the integrity of the project. I carve out moments here and there for storytelling after working a 40 hour week at my day job, and I have less energy at 43 than I did ten years ago when I started this journey. At the same time, I’m very pleased to report that the project is coming together very well so far.

When I pulled the trigger and unpublished the first version of book 3, I thought I would finish rewrites around the end of Act 1. Now that I’ve made it past that point, I realize that I’ll need to rewrite big chunks of the second act, and also make edits beyond that. I’m up to the challenge, but it will most likely be finished before the end of summer, and not by July 4th.

I will say that the sense of playfulness I had during the first two books is fully back, and I’m thrilled about that.

When I get closer to launch I’m going to issue an email list and allow readers who bought the first version to get an ereader version of the new book free, as a “thank you” from me.

I had good intentions between 2021 and 2023 when I wrote Death is Not the End. But I also ultimately made the wrong call. I tried to cram a nonfiction story into a fiction story and compromised both perspectives by doing so. I’m grateful to have the opportunity to fix that mistake and separate the fiction from the nonfiction.

My first step is to give the zombie story world back to the characters themselves. My next step will be a nonfiction book about politics, modern church culture, and warnings in scripture that line up with the mess of “cover up culture” and other issues. I’ve spent most of this year talking about theological issues, cover-up culture, and other topics that have nothing to do with zombie fiction, but are important to me as a person. Giving each part their own space is important.

I’m figuring this out as I grow.

There will still be a Biblical Apocalypse twist in Book 3, because my original vision for this story was to create a less lame Left Behind, with real characters in their various sins being introduced to the reality of a living and loving God as part of their character arcs.

That sort of story reflects my own spiritual journey and the general concept of what “born again” means. You go from not knowing, not considering, not aware, to being introduced to the reality of God. I did, at least.

I’ll be giving the new version a unique name, since it has evolved to be more of a full rewrite than a simple revision. I’m having a lot of fun putting it together and I can’t wait to share it when it’s ready.