State of the Blain: Quarter 4 2026

Greetings, folks. It has been a whirlwind. This post will be a bit lengthy, so please grab yourself a drink and settle in. I’m going to be adventuring into the weeds on how I’m going to be approaching closing out series and wrapping things up with pretty bows.

1: Don’t panic.

Seriously, there’s no need to panic. All I’m doing is making sure I can finish as many series as possible before life does as life does and it comes to a close. (Nobody lives forever.)

That said, I know I have a lot of things in the works, so I’m trying to approach this in a sensible (for me) fashion.

But, allow me to delve into the reasons I’m going into this now.

My husband would like to retire in roughly five years. He doesn’t want to be one of those people who works until it’s almost impossible to anything enjoyable with life. He has busted his ass, he has had a wonderful career, and he’s getting to the point where retirement is actually feasible.

We’ve even picked a location to retire, although that may change in a few years.

2: Please don’t panic.

Note: I am not retiring. He is. But him retiring does mean I will be changing how I run my business. I will be writing less and enjoying life more. I will be spending the last years of our lives together with the focus on us and less on the careers we selected so we could have the time to focus on us.

Once he retires, I will be dropping down to two books a year reliably, more if the stars align or I write more than expected between exploring North America and venturing abroad.

Right now, I release 3-4 books a year. (Some years will be 4-7 as side and passion projects complete and they get tossed into the schedule.)

But let’s assume 3 books a year. That’s roughly 15 books until his retirement starting next year.

3: Pretty please don’t panic.

My upcoming focus, as such, will be on the following:

These series will be wrapped as higher priorities (due to the anthropic payment covering excess bills during their writing). This is in no particular order, but you can expect to see these done sooner than later:

Jesse Alexander: 2 Books

Witch & Wolf World: Edge of Midnight concludes the main series. Dustin Walker will be getting a novel or two and an anthology, but these will not be happening until after my husband retires.

Fox Witch: 1 book to finish series.

Lilith Daniels: 1 book to finish series.

Dae Portals: I will be reviewing the plot arcs I started in the first took books and determining if I can finish in 1-2 books. At most, there will be 3.

Vigilante Magical Librarians: 2 books to finish series. (the next book will release in 2028, the final book will release in 2030.)

Foxes in Space: 2 books. (Failed Colony, The Rose Valley Murders.) While I love this series, I will be transitioning to other projects after these two are done. There is a slim chance I will do another, but it’s unlikely. I have covers for Failed Colony and Rose Valley Murders, and… that’s all.

Science Fiction Standalones: I have one or two with covers in hand that will be randomly tossed in with the series wrap ups.

Bernadette Franklin: Murder Floof and Becoming Juliette are currently the final books I’ll probably write for this pen name. I have other covers in hand, but in reality… this is fine.

Tales of Catalina de la Corona: I have the cover for one final book in hand, so that will end that. I will have the option to do more in the future if I want, as they’re going to be designed to be standalone adventures, but the next one finishes out the covers I have in hand.

Long Term Series Continuations

Audrey Greene: I have at least four to six covers in hand, and as such, these will be in rotation for long term series continuations after all the standalone/conclusions are done.

G.P. Robbins: I have at least ten more books to write between the main series and the Magical Mysteries in Mundane Miami series. (I would have to do a head count, but ten is a safe minimum.)

Magical Romantic Comedy: There are something like seven to ten books left in this series.

Magically Hellish Comedy: There are two books left.

Magical Otters series: There are five or six in this set, and these will only be done after the main series and hellish comedies are finished.

Mag Rom Com Anthologies: There is one guaranteed, maybe two. The guaranteed one will include serial killer princess 2 and last but not leashed’s sequel. These will not be done until after the main series and hellish series are concluded.

Royal States: I have something like five to seven main series books left in hand. (Maybe a few less… can’t remember off hand.) After that, I will finish Agents of the Royal States, and the pen name will conclude with two Foundation of the Royal States novels. The Foundation of the Royal States Novels went to the cover designer this week to be made.

Seeking the Zodiacs: as soon as I am down to only 1 or 2 completion books left, this will enter the main rotation. This will be my last major series. (Consisting of a total of 13 books.)

New Things

I have a few short series (no more than six books, some trilogies, some standalones) that will be tossed into the rotation after I finish the full list of completions.

The rewrite of the Rift King books will count as “new things” for purposes of this discussion.

So, while I say please don’t panic… the reality of the situation is this: I don’t want to leave people with unfinished series should I kick the bucket, so my current work flow is going to involve a lot of series completions with the main series stuff sprinkled in. You can expect a 3 to 1 ratio moving forward. I have not decided the order I’m doing this ratio, although my schedule IS currently set for 2027.

These changes will take place after I finish what’s already up for preorder.

And in case you hadn’t noticed yet, A Knife in the Dark (the second half of Game On) is available for preorder over at Amazon. The preorders for other vendors will be coming later. (Amazon recently opened 18 month preorders, and I wanted to make sure people were aware that the second half will be coming a year following Game On.)

For the most part, Patreon will be business as usual. When my husband retires, however, tiers will be changed, a few new tiers will be introduced, and the tiers being replaced will be shut down when people transition. (Posting will be less frequent, photography will become more commonplace, and when my husband retires, there will be more travel blogging added.)

That is a few years off, but the general idea will be to ease everything to a gentle halt (while still providing content for those who wish to hear from me a few times a week.)

And yes… I would far rather just address this now rather than sweep the carpet out from under people when his retirement does happen and I’m easing away from the relentless work patterns i currently have. (I work and play equally hard right now. When he retires, I’ll be working and playing with casual joy and relaxation.)

So, I hope that this news isn’t completely devastating for you… there are tens upon tens upon tens of new books coming in the years ahead!

I’m just shifting gears down a bit and making sure we can give our favorite characters from old series fond hugs of farewell and finish their books with a sense of satisfaction rather than hoping for something that may never come.

When I set out to write, I wanted to make sure I finished everything I started. I might not finish EVERYTHING I started, but it’ll be close. (I’m looking at you, Rift King and your stubborn band of horses and people.)

If I missed a series, just assign it to the appropriate location in the post, please. I did this mostly from memory, so I’m sure SOMETHING fell through the cracks.

Please know that I love you all, and I’m looking forward to taking you on many future adventures with me.

~R.J.

P.S.: Thank you for not panicking. Don’t forget your towel.