I know those of you who have read “Artifact of the Dawn” are eager to read the next book in the series. I must apologize that I did not keep my promise of publishing “The Medellan Conspiracy” in 2024, so I would like to share my progress with a timeline of what’s been happening and what my plans are going forward (TL;DR, yes I still plan to publish “The Medellan Conspiracy”).

Originally, I hoped to have “The Medellan Conspiracy” published before attending my local Comic-Con as a vendor in August. However, because of unforeseen circumstances (mostly health issues on my part), I didn’t get my rewrite completed in time. After Comic-Con ended, I hoped to get the novel published before the end of the year, but more unfortunate circumstances delayed the book further.

September 2024

I received feedback from my two beta readers, and spent the next few weeks reviewing the feedback, making notes throughout the manuscript and compiling a list of both answers to questions my beta readers had, and questions I had regarding some of their feedback. Because one of the beta readers was sometimes overly blunt (which I appreciated), I always sent all my feedback, along with some of the more blunt comments, to the other beta reader first. An outside perspective helped me process the blunt feedback more fairly, and because all three of us were good friends (and I made all of them aware of how I was handling the feedback) everyone was fine with this process. (I think it helped that all three of us were on the autistic spectrum, so this setup worked well for us).

October 2024

I sent off everything to the first beta reader for their input. After I handed that off, I had the first of a string of pain management procedures for my back, along with several other medical appointments for other issues, so I didn’t focus on writing.

November 2024

This is where things started going off the rails. My first beta reader was still working through what I had sent them, when we received the tragic news of the second beta reader’s passing in an unfortunate accident. Because of this, all work on the novel stopped as we rallied around our friend’s husband, also a close friend of ours. We spent the next few months helping him with whatever he needed, including assisting with the memorial.

February 2025

We were still reeling from the loss of our friend, and I underwent my second back procedure. Understandably, my beta reader made no progress during this time (nor did I expect them to).

March 2025

I had my third back procedure and my beta reader finally brought themself to complete reviewing all my questions and giving me some perspective on our friend’s feedback, although they had to re-contextualize it since I would never be able to ask our friend what their thinking was behind their feedback. I received this late in the month.

April 2025

I took time to review everything and made more notes throughout the manuscript of what I wanted to fix based on all the feedback. I’ve also been through two more back procedures this month, and am struggling with a lot of pain, brain fog from the medication I have to be on, and some anxiety over the current state of the world (being an autistic trans person living in the United States right now is terrifying). I will confess, I have made little progress in editing the manuscript. To date, I’m up to chapter three, out of some ninety chapters.

Anyway, that’s where things stand right now. I really want this novel published before this year’s Comic Con, but I’m not sure that will be possible. It all depends on if I can find the motivation and get past the brain fog and pain of my back issues to power through all these chapters, before sending the manuscript out for what I hope will be the final round of beta reads.

I have recruited a few new beta readers, including my late friend’s sister. I never try to rush my beta readers, so when I get their feedback will depend on their availability. Hopefully, they won’t find too much else that needs to be fixed, but I’ll need to publish no later than late June/early July if I am going to have print copies of the novel available for sale at Comic-Con. I won’t hold my breath, but fingers crossed, I can still get it all done in time this year.