2025 Writing Journey: New Books, Fresh Stories, and Big Goals

Introduction

A couple of weeks ago, I published a post reflecting on last year, 2024. While great things happened in 2024 regarding my writing projects, it’s 2025 that I’m most excited about. Last year was all about updating my website and refining my already published books to ensure consistent quality across the board. It felt like a year of setting the foundation, making sure everything was in place for what’s to come next.

But 2025 is where I feel I can really start to make things happen. While last year was about improving work I had previously done, 2025 is about creating fresh, new material once again. I do have one project carrying over from 2024 that I’ll discuss next, but aside from that, all the other book projects I’ve announced are entirely new. I can’t wait to share them with you when the time comes!

Zero Hour: Republished

The first book I ever wrote was Zero Hour. This story had its genesis while I was serving my two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Auckland, New Zealand. During that time, I had trouble falling asleep at night, so I would constantly daydream about stories I wanted to develop and write. Somewhere along the way, I distinctly remember coming up with an ending for this science fiction story. This was significant because, up to that point, I had struggled with writing—I could sometimes come up with interesting ideas, but I never knew what to do with them or how to end them. Having that ending in mind made all the difference.

So, when I came up with what I felt was a solid ending, Zero Hour was born. I resolved that when I returned home, I would make writing books a reality. I remember that when I first started, I had no idea what I was doing—everything was trial and error. Through multiple drafts and help from my family, my brother Cory in particular, I eventually self-published the book. While Zero Hour wasn’t initially perfect, I couldn’t help but feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment. At the same time, I knew it could be better, and that feeling stayed with me for years.

Long story short, much like The Bloodstrayne, I let the story sit and collect dust—until recently. I eventually dusted it off and started making updates. I realized that the prologue, which detailed the story of the invading alien race, was much too long and might be a burden to get through before reaching the main storyline. To fix this, I broke the story apart into chunks and incorporated them as chapter heading snippets, allowing the narrative to unfold more organically throughout the book. Along with other slight edits and refinements, I finally felt that Zero Hour was good to go.

Keep your eyes peeled for when I officially re-release Zero Hour! I can’t wait for you to dive into it.

Next Release: Undersphere

The idea for Undersphere came to me some years ago while I was thinking about concentric circles and how cool it would be to set a story on an inner sphere of a planet, with characters traveling up a series of concentric spheres to reach the surface. I imagined a world where every layer had its own distinct ecosystem, civilization, and conflicts, creating endless storytelling opportunities. While not overly scientific, I wanted the world to make some plausible sense, so I worked on ways to make it feel grounded and internally consistent.

While I love fantasy as a genre, I’ve found that I have a harder time writing pure fantasy because I have a tendency to want to explain everything scientifically—to make worlds and scenarios at least somewhat plausible. So while Undersphere will feel like a fantasy book in many respects, much like The Bloodstrayne before it, Undersphere is more strictly a science fiction book, though light on the science aspect.

This book is a straight young adult novel, and I’m thrilled to share it with my younger readers in a few months!

The Nephites’ Story—The Next Book in The Good Story Series

I can’t express how excited I am for this project! Last year, I released The Good Story, my attempt to harmonize the four Gospel accounts into one cohesive narrative, reformatted to read like a modern-day novel. Originally, I wasn’t sure if such an approach would actually work, but I was impressed with the results, and The Good Story has become one of my favorite scripture books to return to for reading and rereading. The response from readers has also been incredibly encouraging, which only fueled my enthusiasm for continuing the series.

As such, I started making plans to expand The Good Story into a series of scriptural books. The Book of Mormon has always fascinated me, and the stories it contains have stuck with me and given me inspiration. Naturally, I thought it would be the perfect candidate for my second project. I’m plugging away at it and am already halfway through—I’m thrilled with how it’s turning out! While not as complex as The Good Story, The Nephites’ Story has been incredibly fun to dive into because I have full control over structuring the parts, chapters, and storyline to create a more seamless, easy-to-read, modern novel experience.

Night Raven—(White Serpent Sequel & Start of a New Trilogy)

Next up is a project I have slated, hopefully, for this summer. A few years ago, I wrote a small book called White Serpent. At the time, I had no intention of turning White Serpent into anything more, but the longer I sat on it, the more an idea started to form about expanding its story into something larger and more expansive. I kept coming back to the world and characters, feeling like they had more to offer.

And that’s how the idea for Night Raven was born—the first book in a new trilogy, with White Serpent acting as the prequel or origin story for this new series.

Other Things

I have many other story ideas in the pipeline, but that’s all I’ll announce officially for now. Rest assured, there’s more where that came from, and I’ll keep you posted.

Beyond new book releases, one of my goals this year is to make blogging a thing again. I used to blog regularly on Medium back in the day (gosh, that makes me sound like an old man already...), but I let it languish for too long. Now, I’m excited to get back into it! Blog posts will cover book releases, thoughts on the writing process, productivity tools and methodologies, book and movie reviews, and anything else I feel like discussing.

On top of that, I’ve started a venture with a couple of my brothers called Seegmiller Publishing. While it’s not an official company yet, we’re working to turn Seegmiller Publishing into our own self-publishing brand to market our books. We might take on other authors in the future, but that’s a ways down the road. For now, I’ll just say that I’m excited about where this is going, and I can’t wait to help release my books and my brothers’ books out into the wild.

Conclusion

So, that’s the general theme of 2025 for me—new book releases, more consistent blogging and posting, and working to build up Seegmiller Publishing. To stay up to date on my new books and adventures, consider signing up for my newsletter by clicking here!

Also, be sure to check out my other books—you might find a new favorite! Available in Hardcover, Paperback, and Kindle formats – choose your preferred way to join the adventure!