Two of the Colplatschki books are on sale from now until June 5:
When fascination leads to obsession, how do you protect an empire? And what price will others pay for that neglect?
Category Archives: Book News
Clawing Back from Chaos is Live
Love. War. Insanity. Just another year in Rada Ni Drako’s worlds.
Rada survived the Battle of the Tunnels in the Harz Mountain campaign, but at what cost? Even love may not be enough to save her soul. And if it is, will she ever heal enough to face the danger slowly building around her.
A patient enemy has been working far behind the scenes, stalking the halls of power, nudging England’s future toward chaos. An enemy that has Rada and her god-children in its cross-hairs.
The Dragon has retired. Can the Cat fight alone? Or will the chaos outside overwhelm even Rada as she Claws Back from Chaos? Continue reading
New Release: Clawing Back from Chaos: Excerpt
Chapter One: Wintertide Respite
“Consider it the Graf-General’s farewell tour,” Captain Maria de Alba suggested as she looked over the list of things they were supposed to have had done already. In early December General Joschka Graf von Hohen-Drachenburg would be making an “informal inspection” of the 58th Regiment of Foot, better known as the Global Defense Force’s British branch, forcing everyone to catch up on all those things they hadn’t had time to do because they’d been too busy doing what they were supposed to do.
The adjutant shook his head, “No, if it were a farewell tour there’d already be t-shirts for sale, and I haven’t seen an order form for the commemorative DVD.” The rest of the staff officers and their advisor groaned at the Israeli’s abysmal joke. Even Commander “Rachel Na Gael” managed a laugh and Moshe grinned even more broadly. He liked the one-eyed alien and he missed hearing her laughter and her wise-ass comments. Ever since the regiment’s return from Germany, she’d been growing quieter and quieter, and Captain Moshe ben David worried about her.
“Actually, this is his way of settling bets, since there was a large chunk of the pool that wagered he’d just fossilize behind his desk and get rolled out for meetings and receptions like Jeremy Bentham,” Colonel Tadeus Przilas, the executive officer, confided to the others, drawing another round of chuckles. He switched topics. “Commander, what’s this I hear about no Christmas crackers?” It had been a hard few months and everyone was looking forward to the Christmas holidays, even the non-Christians.
She snorted. “Utter codswallop, as usual. Someone decided that,” she mimicked the logistics officer’s tone, “‘out of concern for those suffering from PTS,’ we would only have crackers that did not make a popping sound. Which, of course, do not exist. Thus no crackers.” She leaned forward conspiratorially, whispering “or so Oatmeal thinks.” Captain Edward O’Neil, now branded “Oatmeal” because of his behavior during the Harz campaign, had earned the disgust of the rest of the officers, and they made no effort to hide their unprofessional snickers. Then the conference room door opened and Regimental Sergeant Major Sheldon Smith, Captain O’Neil, Father Mikael Farudi and Major General James McKendrick joined them. Continue reading
Book Status Update
The print edition of Alexander, Soldier’s Son is available. However, it has a little problem in one of the headers, so I will need to correct things once I figure out how and re-upload the content file. The stories are all fine, but I didn’t see the headers when I was looking over the PDF conversion. My bad.
Clawing Back the Chaos, the next Cat Among Dragons book, will be available around May 15. Sooner, I hope, but we’ll see.
A question for my Colplatschki fans: which book comes next? The next NovRodi story is set for release in August-September. However, after that one, do you want the origins story (Fountains of Mercy) about the Great Fires, or the third NovRodi book, about Pjtor’s granddaughter-in-law? It would be for a late spring release in 2018.
State-of-the-Author April 2017
The next Cat Among Dragons book, now re-titled, has finished being edited. Cover design is in progress and a mid-May release looks pretty certain.
The next Colplatschki book is being edited for a late summer release.
The next Powers book will be released in December. Continue reading
Due to Editing…
the history post has been rescheduled to Monday.
I’m working through the recommendations and edits on the next Cat book. I’ve gone through my usual phases, starting with “How dare you flag that usage” to “Er, he’s got a point” to “Hmm, no, that one stays,” to “OK, OK, dang I thought I’d stopped doing that, OK.”
I can haz grammar?
Thus far there’s only one major-minor reworking that’s going to be needed. I do wish I’d quit picking new words to over-use. It started with “very” and then “quite” and now it is “rather.”
I thought I’d already fixed that? And where did those words come from?
Edited to add: The Edits are Done!! And what remains of my brain is checking out for the rest of the day.
March State of the Author
Tired and enjoying Spring Break.
The second draft of the next-plus-one Cat novel is done. At the moment it is around 106,000 words and includes another encounter with the Pack, a secret from Joschka’s past that threatens to shatter his relationship with Rada, an oversized, waltzing fox, and a honeymoon (with werewolf. Maybe.).
The next Cat novel is being edited for late May release.
I have not heard from the acquisitions editor about the RajWorld books, so I will plan on adding them to the rotation for 2017.
The next Colplatschki book is being edited for a September release.
I have a few short-story ideas bouncing around that I will work on, and am waiting to see which novel insists on being written next. A follow-up to Language of the Land may be in the works, or it might not. I’m not sure yet.
