Year 13 of My 5-10 Year Overnight Success Plan

by | Jan 21, 2026 | Checking in | 0 comments

Guess what time of year it is? It’s time for your favorite(?) tormentor of the English language to harass the number system for a while.

Yeah, we’re a few years past the end of the runway, but I somewhat explicitly mentioned that overnight success was going to take a while. My pithiness from over a decade ago just failed to adequately account for my own tenacity (that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it).

2025 did OK. I wrapped up a bunch of stuff, started some other projects, and settled into a new workflow. If 2024 was chaotic, 2025 was a pretty chill ride, and I got a lot of words into books.

However, I’m not going to lie, those books haven’t been as successful as I hoped. The landscape is shifting under the feet of the creative world. Politics, economics, and technology are all pushing and pulling for attention and getting between readers and books.

The only solution: keep writing more!

In 2025 I finished up Passage of Time and released a full collection in Audio. Honestly, I loved writing that whole thing. Eric Ramsey, in particular, was just a delightful character to get inside the mind of.

I also kicked off a new series last year. I was cagey about the concept in my 2024 update, since I wasn’t fully committed to it yet. But Lava & Lightning, the first entry into the Dragonhammer Saga, is my first foray back into pure fantasy since the Twinborn Chronicles: War of Three Worlds.

[Note: Unless you count the Metagamer Chronicles I wrote as my LitRPG pen name, Xavier P. Hunter, chronicling an old D&D campaign I ran back in the early 2000s—a campaign for which I still get grief from my friends for one particular dungeon.]

As 2026 lurches up to speed, I’ve got the second and third books of the Dragonhammer Saga trilogy on the way. Runes & Ruins, the second installment, will be available around the time you see this update (either on pre-order or just recently released). The finale, Hammers & Heroes, you can expect in May.

That leaves us to talk about entirely new projects, each of which is already in the pipeline at some point of development.

  • Edict: AI – What happens when the world’s most dysfunctional tech billionaire releases the world’s first sentient, superintelligent AI? Let’s just say that controlling half the world’s computing resources isn’t the kind of power you want in the hands of someone whose roommate makes sure she eats and showers.
  • The Journals of Dark Science – Scientists crave collaboration and peer review, even if what they’re working on is monstrous. Enter the Dark Web. Secret societies of mad scientist anonymously help one another with projects ranging from the bizarre to the horrific. When one polymath with a conscience decides to step in, he recruits a pair of agents to track down and stop these villains before it’s too late. Think Fringe meets The Blacklist. Book 1, Helix Roar, involves the development of a gene-targeted virus that will wipe out the exact traits its creators chooses, and in as many variants as he cares to make.
  • Black Ocean: Murder by the Book – OK, I saved the fan favorite for last. You’ve seen snippets of what Mort used to do working for the Convocation. But watching Tiffany Bell take over as the newest Acquisitions Librarian working for Azrael Copperfield in the Library of the Plundered Tomes will get down and dirty with just what it takes to be a professional dark wizard killer. Mission 1, If Books Could Kill, shows what happens when a veteran librarian fails a mission, and what happens when the new kid wants to send a message about messing with librarians.

So, I’ve got a full plate for 2026, writing-wise. I’ve also got a few little surprises to hopefully sprinkle in on the side throughout the year. I don’t want to spoil anything, since some of it might not work out according to plan, but I’m pretty excited.

Some of you may have already caught my video update at the end of 2025 or stopped by for my first couple gaming + Q/A sessions on Twitch. I’m kicking off my streams playing Stellaris with a Black Ocean flair, playing as the “Azrin Empire”. The folks who have joined us for the first couple streams seem to have had fun. I know I have. With a couple upcoming exceptions for some travel in late Jan/early Feb, I’m starting with Saturday afternoons (PST)/evenings (EST).

I’m trying this because one of my goals (I hate calling them resolutions, since it’s like the kiss of death for following through) is to be more visible and available to fans this year. Hopefully, I can keep up with it and maintain a good writing pace.

The writing will always take the pilot’s chair.

That’s what you’re all here for, anyway, right? The books? I’ve got you covered on the books.

But you can still follow me on YouTube and Twitch for more updates throughout the year.

Note: On YouTube, “subscribe” is a free thing; on Twitch, “follow” is the free one and “subscribe” is either an Amazon Prime thing or a paid thing. Just be careful. 😀

Anyone who is interested in this whole 5-10 Year Plan for Overnight Success (now in overtime) can check out earlier entries to see the journey unfold.

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