Richard Holliday – Author

I’ve decided every quarter to do a little overview of where I am with my current writing projects. This is largely to keep myself accountable for how I am spending my time.

For me, writing is a hobby I truly enjoy and love, and I am passionate about. I was inspired by my friend Ryan M. Patrick who does similar writing project updates on his own blog and I think this is an excellent use for an author’s blog. I want to use my blog more going forward and I think this will help!

What does my writing slate look like?

I have the following “active” projects either in active development or I’m on the cusp of doing so:

• Legacy of Iron: my fantasy/Gaslamp/steampunk/combo of all of these things, intended to be book one of a two-book duology. (lol)
• Ray of Light: a short, American-themed thriller novel/novella set around the year 2001. I originally completed the first draft in 2023.
• The Thaw: a post-apocalyptic thriller novella that I originally wrote in 2016 and has been sitting at fourth draft stage since 2022. I have decided the time is right to self-publish this work.
• The Disaster Series*: A series of short (40k-60k) thriller novels I have envisioned that will be fictionalised retellings of various “disasters” or mishaps that have taken place that I don’t think enough people know about and that I think would make engaging fictional retellings.

*working title

State of Play

Where am I with each of these projects?

Project	Current Status	Next Stage
Legacy of Iron	First Draft	Shelved for cool-off period after completing first draft; draft to be reviewed Q1 2026
Ray of Light	Second Draft	First round of developmental edits October 2025
The Thaw	Fourth Draft	Awaiting proofread and cover commission
Disaster series*	Concept	To be outlined

What’s My Plan?

My tentative plan for the next quarter will therefore be thusly:

• October 2025: Ray of Light will be away for developmental edits. I intend to outline two of the Disaster series books in October. I will also be arranging a proofread for The Thaw and will be commissioning the cover.
• November 2025: Draft one of the Disaster series books as I’m itching to get back in the drafting zone again, and these books are going to be shorter than my recent Legacy of Iron project so should be more streamlined to get through the publishing pipeline.
• December 2025: likely more drafting if I haven’t finished one of the Disaster series books, but I plan to slow down in December for the Christmas period so I can rest and recuperate a bit in preparation for 2026

As always, more exclusive project updates will be through my monthly(ish) newsletter so do consider subscribing here.