At the moment, the plan is to return to The Daily Downforce for its second season in 2024. I've been told that an offseason plan has been approved and that it includes me in sone way but I don't know what it is or what it looks like so we'll have to wait on that. All that said, the 2024 season will be here before we know it and I couldn't be more excited. I'm already ready for it to start, though I'm thankful for the breathing room in the meantime.
I take the PLT on Thursday. The PLT is a licensing exam for teachers and it'll be my second of the three I have to take. I hope I pass it but more than that, I'm happy to get it off my plate. I've got other things to worry about like editing the next, next book (after The Fifth Line), titled Hesher which has a tentative release date set in the fall of 2025. This book is a straight up horror novel, in a similar vein as Bunny Boy which kind of combines the mythology of that novel with the story of Hansel and Grettle. Hopefully that process goes well. I'd like to do a book a year for a while though I'm not sure how feasible that is. We shall see, though!
For a while I've had the long-term goal of putting together another collection of stories. I even have a title but I'm not going to talk too much about that now. What I will say is that for years I've been promising myself (and many of you) that I'd put out a story for Halloween. Something short, an eBook of one or two stories to creep you out near or around the spooky season. In 2025, my New Years Resolution will be to make this happen. I've already got a couple of stories I could release, though I'm not sure any of them are right for this particular project. But I've also got this dynamite idea for a short story that I think will be perfect for this little experiment. Once I'm at a stopping point in my novel Whisperwood I plan to take a short breather to jot this one little story down. Fingers crossed!
Needless to say, The Fifth Line will be out in January, as intended. I got my proof last week and approved it. The book looks great and I'm expecting some author copies in the mail either this week or next. That's been a fun process and I'm looking forward to hearing what readers think of it. It's a very personal book for me.
On that note, I think I'll end it here. Big thanks to my readers and The Daily Downforce for making this all possible. Until next time, see you at either the December edition of From The Desk or the big Year End Wrap-Up edition. I hope you've all had a great Halloween and will have a great Happy Thanksgiving.
-Cody Williams
Hamption, Tennessee
November 6, 2023