The Future of the Flying Wizard

Art by Anton Pieck

Here we go into the last phase of 2025! Time for some blog-ulation and a look ahead. The fourth Scaleborn book, MAGNIFICENT EXILES, is finished and currently in the copy-editing stage. I recently started working with the mighty Brian LeBlanc on the cover painting. I expect another masterpiece. My goal is to get this book on sale by the end of January. Flying Wizard Press began with the Scaleborn series, and it's going full steam ahead for 2026 and beyond.

Going forward, I'll be doing more books set in the same universe as the Scaleborn books, but they won't be part of a series. I have envisioned a novel set in Carsonne, which would express a very different flavor to the books set in Yhorom. The thing about writing a series is that people don't want to read the books out of order, even when each book is meant to be a standalone adventure. I understand this reluctance, because I'm the same way as a reader--I will not read a book that's part of a series unless I've read the books that came before it. The only exception to this is when I don't KNOW it's part of a series.

Cover art by Ken Kelly

Case in point: When I discovered Tanith Lee's DEATH'S MASTER, it hit me like a thunderbolt, and it remains one of my all-time favorite fantasy novels. I think I've read it at least three times at this point. However, I had no idea when I found it that it was the SECOND book in Lee's Flat Earth series. Which was a lucky stroke, because I never would have bought it at that seedy little used bookstore in the early 90s if I had know it was the second book in a series. No, I would have had to find book one, NIGHT'S MASTER, first, which may or may not have happened. When I finally did get around to reading the first book, I liked it a lot, but I still like DEATH'S MASTER even more, so I'm glad I read it first. It hooked me on the Flat Earth series before I even knew it was a series. This highlights another problem with doing a series: If the first book doesn't win you over, you're not going to bother reading the second book--or any of the rest.

The Flat Earth books are definitely standalone novels--you don't have to start with book one. And that's the same approach I wanted to try with the Scaleborn Saga. However, I've learned a few things from doing this series--and my first series, the Shaper Trilogy. First, I learned that each successive book in a series tends to bring in fewer readers than the one before it. The reasons for this are many. Most people will ignore all of the succeeding books until they've read book one--which they may never get around to reading. Also, the longer any series lasts, the more difficult it becomes to make each novel a standalone read. The mythic nature of the Flat Earth books (i.e. high fantasy) made them highly conducive to being a series of independent epics. By contrast, the Scaleborn saga is far less mythic and therefore more interdependent. As the fantasy world I'm writing about continues to grow and develop, each new installment becomes more tied to established continuity. So, while I'm glad I did four Scaleborn books in a row, I intend to take a new approach after the January release of MAGNIFICENT EXILES.

Art by Raoul Vitale

Instead of doing a fifth Scaleborn book, I'm going to do a novel set in Carsonne, a necromantic nation located in the same world as the Scaleborn books. The Carsonne book will grow out of the Carsonnian short stories seen in OLD MOON QUARTERLY and NEW EDGE SWORD & SORCERY magazines. There is simply no need to do a series in order to keep exploring this expansive and ever-growing universe that I've created. Instead, I'll tell a new story about new characters in a new land, a fresh epic that may be related in some ways to the Scaleborn series, yet without being a part of that series.

Overall, the result of this new approach will be novels that are truly standalone reads--with complete storylines begun and resolved in each book. This will also allow me to explore the length and breadth of my imaginary world, as well as to jump backward and forward in time, if I choose to do so. In other words, I can do various types of stories with no relation to one another, except for the fact that they all take place in a shared fantasy world. This non-series approach will also allow me to invent whole NEW worlds if I want to. Doing a fantasy series can be lots of fun, but it also ties your hands with threads that you've already woven, and those threads eventually become confining ropes that limit your creativity and your freedom. The Flying Wizard must be free to soar in any direction.

Art by Sanjulian

All of this is a long-winded way of saying that I think I am "done" with series work at this point. However, I'm NOT done with the World of the Scaleborn. After MAGNIFICENT EXILES, my next novel will most likely be THE BOOK OF CARSONNE. The Scaleborn books have explored the Empire of Yhorom in great detail, but there is much more of this fantastic world to explore, as well as an infinite number of new characters to meet.

I also plan to release an expanded edition of my WORLDS BEYOND WORLDS fantasy collection at some point, as well as a collected edition of the Magtone Cycle, a six-story saga that ran in the pages of WEIRDBOOK a few years ago.

Meanwhile, OLD MOON QUARTERLY #9 should be dropping in Jan/Feb, featuring my Carsonne-based story "Down and Out in the City of Graveyards." Still no word on when LOVECRAFT'S DARK DREAMLANDS will be published, but it will include my swashbuckling Dreamlands novella "The Exodus of Sammon Hardbough." If all goes well, it will see the light of day sometime in 2026.

On January 10, I'll be serving on a couple of discussion panels at the first-ever SMITH CIRCLE event. This conference dedicated to celebrating the life and works of Clark Ashton Smith takes place in his hometown of Auburn, CA, and it should be a blast for CAS fans, as well as those who have yet to discover the Emperor of Dreams and his magnificent body of work. I'll be selling and signing copies of A FEW ODD SOULS there, and I'll also have plenty of Scaleborn books available too. Come join us in Auburn and get your weird on!

Peace & Broadswords,

John