What’s after The Day Magic Died? (Part 3)

8 Jan

With the end in sight for the series The Day Magic Died, I wanted to share some ideas I’ve had for what comes next. Monday I shared a concept I’m calling The Dancer of the Red Sands. Tuesday I shared about The Messenger of Allengia. Today, it’s …

TruetouchTruetouch: The priest is sure the boy is hiding something, running from someone. And the reason he call tell is … he’s running too. But never in his wildest dreams did he imagine the strange power the boy is imbued with. It’s a power so great that when they meet a girl who considers herself a goddess, she thinks the boy is a god. Since none of them can go home, they decide to try to make lives for themselves in a new land. Soon enough they discover that there’s something about each of them that cries out for them to not simply live, but to live for others. They band together to do just that.

Intended as an ongoing series.

I’ve written about 20,000 words of the first book.

Tomorrow: Bard of the Galaxies

What’s after The Day Magic Died? (Part 2)

7 Jan

With my series wrapping up in the first half of 2014, I wanted to share some ideas I’ve been working on for the second half of the year. Yesterday I shared a concept I’m calling The Dancer of the Red Sands. Today, it’s …

The Messenger of Allengia: At age 48, Jek has finally decided that it’s time to step out Messengerof the saddle as a Messenger of the goddess of truth, and become an abbot of his order. He welcomes the summons from the Temple of Allengia in Tilaundia. But he isn’t offered a posting; he’s given his most important message ever. It’s a message so important that he’ll be accompanied by two other Messengers: the boy he calls Biscuit, and the imposing mute, Hizardin. Because the last five solo messengers have failed.

This is another series that is intended to be a trilogy, but could actually end up being longer.

I have a fairly detailed summary for the first book drafted, and have written about 6,000 words.

Tomorrow: Truetouch

What’s after The Day Magic Died? (Part 1)

6 Jan

With the fourth of five books coming out in February, and the fifth one due out in May, I’ve been thinking about and even working on what comes next.

So this week I’m going to share some story ideas with you to see what you think. At the end I’ll try to post a poll (never done that before), but feel free to share your thoughts along the way.

Let’s start with …

Dancer of the Red Sands: Farmers band together and Ferals stand alone, as people try to find some way to survive. The Beasts have overrun their land, and it falls to Tisa – an outcast Feral, now also disowned by the farm family who took her in – to set out in search of the army that was supposed to come and vanquish the Beasts.

This is a trilogy at this point. Just bear in mind that when I started The Day Magic Died, I thought it would be one book and it turned into five. But that doesn’t mean a planned trilogy will come out as fifteen books. I hope.

I have about 18,000 words written in the first book of this series, and about 5,000 written in the second book. I have a fairly detailed summary of the storyline completed as well.

Tomorrow: The Messenger of Allengia

What do you think of the Dancer of the Red Sands idea?

What’s ahead in 2014

2 Jan

the-man-with-two-eyes-kindle-coverWhat would you think if I told you I already have 11 more books under way?

I’m going to go out on a limb and guess, “Finish The Day Magic Died series first!”

If that was your thought, you need not worry. The final two books in that series are among the first three or four books I plan to complete in 2014.

In fact, the plan for the first half of the year is pretty much set in … well, perhaps dried mud. It’s not really fluid, but it’s not exactly stone either:

February: The Dwarf’s Legacy, book four of The Day Magic Died.

March: The Man with Two Eyes, a Nascent Payne Mystery. This novella (under 30,000 words, compared to about 90,000 words for each of novels in my series) is the second in the series, The Hunt for the Wallaby.

May: The fifth and final book of the series The Day Magic Died. I am now ready to unveil the likely final name for this book: The White Silver House. Oh, and I’ve saved the best for last. This final novel will likely top 120,000 words, or about one-third longer than each of the other books in the series.

June: The third novella in The Hunt for the Wallaby series is due out. That may wrap up the series, or it may go into a fourth book. Not sure yet …

But even if The Hunt for the Wallaby goes into a fourth novella, that leaves the rest of the year as an open book. So what am I going to do?

I’m going to ask you to help me decide. All next week, I’ll be giving you brief synopses of upcoming book ideas, and asking you tell me what you think. This should be fun …

A glance back before we drive forward

1 Jan


You readers rock!

As of Jan. 1, 2013, I had never published a single book. I’ve lost count of the number of articles I’ve written for newspapers and magazines and websites – or more accurately, I never kept count. But up until a year ago, never a book.

Now here I am at the beginning of 2014 with four books available on Amazon.com: three novels in my series The Day Magic Died, and a novella, a Nascent Payne Mystery titled The sort-of Murder of Fiona Galloway. (I know, I haven’t talked much about that series … yet.)

To top it all off, there are something like 10,000 copies of my books out there.

Wait, that doesn’t top it all. What tops it all is that you folks helped feed 90 families for a day. Based on the sales of my series in December, Rice & Beans Foundation will be receiving $90 to purchase food for needy families in Nicaragua. Thanks!

I am very grateful to you, my readers, and I promise you two things:

  • More books are coming
  • I will work to improve my writing

Here’s to a good 2014!