Category Archives: Book News

May ’22 State of the Author update

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Short version – busy. This is crunch week 2.0 at Day Job, with the year wrapping up.

I’m at 50K words on Overly Familiar. I’ve also sketched out the next main-series Familiars novel, and am starting to work through some ideas for Familiar Generations. I hope for an August release for this one, and perhaps a September or early October release for the next Familiars after that.

Noble, Priest, and Empire is with the editor. I don’t expect to hear back until late June, for a mid-July release. I have the cover art already.

Blogging will slow down in June. If things go as they appear to be going, I will be without internet for several weeks. I hope to have three or four posts per week, and I might turn off comments, just so people don’t get trapped for three weeks or so in Moderation Limbo. We’ll see.

Monday Miscellany

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Well, Noble, Priest, and Empire is off to the editor. I hope to have it back in late June, for a July release. I may price it a little higher than the others, $5.95 US, because of the length. Or I might keep it at $4.95.

I am 30K words into Overly Familiar, and have a bit of P-Familiar done. That will be the end of the main Familiar Tales series. Things will shift over to the Familiar Generations as the “youngsters” move into the limelight.

If all goes well, two more Familiars sets will go into print format by the end of summer.

I’m currently reading part of C. V. Walters, Alien Brides romance series. The stories are steamier than I usually prefer, but I really like how she takes some of the least-positive paranormal romance (PNR) tropes, flips them so that there’s a reason for the characters to do things other than “holding the idiot ball”, and makes fun stories out of it.

On a completely different note, I’m also working my way through Poland: The First Thousand Years. It is a political and intellectual history of Poland. It is very well written. I”m also nibbling on a history of the Butte mine disaster of the 1910s. Nibbling because reading about mine fires and the aftermath is not pleasant. It’s a very good book, just on a hard topic. There are a few other histories I’m gnawing away at as well.

Publication and Release Dates 2022

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Howdy!

Because several people have asked, the release for the next Merchant book will be, I hope, in mid to late July. If all goes well the draft will be done next week, and will go to edits in May. I will be without Internet for much of June, thus the July release. I know I said that it would be earlier. I did not anticipate 1) the book reaching 120,000 words and 2) needing to hire an editor. (I love my volunteers, you are great readers and very helpful, but my style needs a tune-up. I think some problems are creeping in that should to be stopped.)

The next Familiars book will probably come out in August. I anticipate one more main-series novel, then the story will shift over to the Familiar Generations series. There will probably be another short-story set or two in the main Familiars line.

Beyond that? I have some ideas, but Life keeps tossing things into other directions.

Open Floor

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What topics would you like to see me blog about? I was working on City, Priest, and Empire and Day Job things this weekend, and alas, my blogging brain took a day off.

I hope to push through during Spring Break and get the Merchant book done. It will be close to 100K words, making it the longest book I’ve written to date.

State of the Author January ’22

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Off-kilter. Day job has resumed, but the schedule is a bit odd, for various reasons.

The rough draft of Familiar Paths is done. It needs to sit and simmer before I go through and smooth some things.

I’m roughly 3/5 done with City, Priest, and Empire. This will make it the longest book in the series thus far. Alas, a possible next book idea has bubbled up, alas for me. I’m not sure I want to tangle with it for a while, though. It will require on-the-ground research that’s just not possible until sanity returns to the world of trans-continental travel.

I have the plot of Overly Familiar sketched out.

Keep in mind, this is my very busy semester, so I anticipate my writing time and energy fading at the end of this month. I will also try to get the next two Familiar books out in print in the near future. I’ve gone through the electronic editions and flagged some things for correction. My thanks to people who have sent me post-publishing “catches.” I have them, I know I need to get them fixed, it’s just energy levels and time.