Kyle West

I’ve gathered a few of the most highlighted Kindle quotes from Wasteland Chronicles (found in the books main pages on Amazon, a nifty little feature they have).

“A man does not do what he wants. He does what he must.” – Alex/Alex’s father

“Life sucks, there’s no way around that. But you never know when the good might come. Maybe it won’t, but you shouldn’t count it out. And besides, that’s what makes us human, right? Even if it seems impossible, even when there is no point, we fight to the death with smiles on our faces.” – Makara

“There is always something we can do to make another’s day brighter – a smile, a kind word or gesture – the small things give us the strength to do the big things.” – The Wanderer

“It takes courage to open up to a world that isn’t worth opening up to. That courage is part of our humanity, part of our noble defiance – and all we can do is pray that it’s worth it.” – Anna, though maybe Alex…too lazy to look it up 😛

“Be wary of evil men, Alex. They always tell a half-truth because they can’t stomach the full.” – The Wanderer

“A lot of life is realizing what you can and can’t control, and learning to be okay with that.” – Alex, I believe

“We all feel fear, Alex. It’s what we do with it that counts.” – The Wanderer (I think he might have read Harry Potter)

“Hide the secret of life in the stars, in matter, in numbers, and science will one day unveil it. But hide it in the heart, and you could search for infinite eternities and never find it.” – the Nameless One

“We are the sum of our experiences. No more, no less. But I’d like to believe there’s something more to all of us. That we have the strength to defy our experiences and rise above them, to push back against the world that has treated us so cruelly. To hold out arms and make it a better place to live. Sometimes, all that gets lost in the madness. It all gets overwhelmed. Yet, here we are. Still standing.” – Anna

It’s been about two months since Xenofall has come out, and normally around this time I’d be deep into edits on my next book. Only I’m not at the moment. The past couple of months have been pretty frustrating writing-wise. I must have tried to start the new book three to four times, but never really felt the story. The manuscripts get abandoned just a few days after I started.

Honestly, I’m kind of at a loss for how to proceed. It’s hard for me to even outline and I feel like everything I’ve come up with so far is boring.

I just wanted to write this blog to let you guys know that my next book won’t be out in its usual time. I have no idea why I’m having this block, but hopefully it’ll go away soon. I know what I said I’d write was a continuation of Wasteland Chronicles, only I just can’t see how that’s going to work at the moment. Everything is still every unclear in my head, whereas with WC, I more or less knew all the plot points going forward and it was very well formed in my mind.

All I have in my head at the moment is some of the history, but almost nothing of the actual storyline. I think it’s just missing the one concept that makes it really interesting to me. For Wasteland Chronicles, it was the concept of the post-apocalyptic world caused by a meteor. I don’t know what the concept for this one is…is it just alien invasion part 2? That just seems too predictable and uninteresting. I feel like it needs more than that. My current idea doesn’t seem big enough.

Something will come to me soon, I hope. Maybe what I have so far is off, and that’s what’s keeping me from writing. Maybe I just need to approach this in a different way. Maybe I just need to write something even if it feels like its terrible, or work on something completely different.

My plan was to do a follow-up series, but maybe I need to work on something different. I started a new project today and wrote 5,000 words, which is quite a lot for me. I’m going to give if a few days and see what happens. I suppose you have to go where the words are. The fact I wrote so much on it seems to be a good sign, but then again, who knows what it will look like a few days from now.

Whatever ends up happening, thanks for your patience and I’m working to have something new out as soon as I can. Just seems the muse has gone away for the moment, but I’ll keep showing up at the keyboard until it comes back.