I always equate August with the heat of the summer. Around these parts July and September can be just as brutal. The origin of the phrase goes back to the Greeks and Romans. It references the period of the year when Sirius and the Sun rise and fall together. Their reasoning? The additional heat of the brightest star added to the heat of the sun.
I’ve heard less rational explanations of natural phenomenon lately, so who am I to judge.
Anyway, the news for August.
By the time you read this, I’ll have a manuscript ready for Finwell Bay (the book formerly known as Troy Harbor), Book 3 in the Shaman’s Tales. I still have a few pages to go but I’m inordinately pleased with the progress I’ve made this week. Time is getting really tight on this one and I still haven’t gotten the cover from Jesse.
Next up, Hostage, Book 1 of Barbarians. I’ve got a completed second draft back from my co-author (my daughter) and it’s just been waiting for me to add my notes to the draft and see if there’s anything else I want to change. She’ll be doing the cover for it. (Did I mention she’s also an artist?) I asked her to draw a map for us, too. It’s amazing. This one should go right into the editor after I get Finwell Bay back.
After that, I’ll have Dark Knight Station: Origins to deal with. I had an artist who was working up some sketches for a cover but I need to check in with him. I haven’t heard anything for a while. As I remember, that book shouldn’t take too much massaging to get into shape. I just need to watch the continuity. One of the advantages of hammering a book out in a matter of a few weeks is that I can keep the timeline more or less straight from the beginning.
What am I reading?
The last book I finished was the second book in Krista D. Ball’s Ladies Occult Society series–A Ghostly Request. If you liked the first book, you’ll like the second.
I’ve been reading a lot of stuff that I can’t recommend. Mostly samples of titles that failed to get me to the “Buy me” link at the end of the sample. Many failed in the first few pages. I’ve been disappointed, but I’m also aware that I’ve been hyper-critical lately. I may not be giving the books a fair shake in my current state of distraction.
That said, most of the Paranormal Women’s Fiction authors from earlier in the year have come out with new books in their various series. I’ve got several waiting for me in my TBR pile.
Looking Ahead
I need to start getting more words down. I think the next book will be either The Wizard’s Cat or the next Ishmael book. I’ve got a rough outline for each of them and a writing event coming up in mid-August where the goal is to write 25k words in 4 days. I’ll need a fresh story for that if I’m going to have any prayer of 6250 words a day over the course of a long weekend.
After too many weeks of letting things stew, I think I may be ready to push through the dog days and into fall and winter with a fresh spirit.
Wish me luck.
Good luck, dear!
Those are amazing news. I’m glad you’re feeling good about yourself and your work. We enjoy every tidbit you send our way.
As for being too harsh on the samples you read, maybe you just hit a bad patch of mediocre work. Happens.
Take care and please stay safe,
Lucie
I’m conflicted – – I want the next Ishmael book because it’s my favorite of your series, but I want *Wizard’s Cat* because I suggested it. 🙂 If I had druthers I’d ask that you do *Cat* for the weekend project, knock that out, and then focus on Ishmael.
I may just do that.
I agree with Robert Evans. Please write The Wizard’s Cat quickly so that you can turn out another delightful Ishmael novel.
I skipped the cat and went right for Ishmael. 😀
Thanks for going on to Ishmael, just finished reading thru the series for the third time. Most people would ask why re-read a series, it’s because his story, especially the early years is absolutely the best fiction I have read. I hope his life evens out and he finds some lasting happiness. Sir I hope you are well and continue to enjoy life.
Hubba hubba hubba! New works!
I don’t suppose you need a cat for inspiration for the next Wizard’s book, do you? We have many spares to lend, in many varieties of temperament 😀
I have three of my own and I’ve lived with them almost my entire life.
But thanks for the offer 🙂
I wonder how Ish and Pip would cope with a wizards cat on board?
Superb news and it sounds like my Christmas reading list has a couple of entries. I personally love looking at maps and following the progress of the characters.
While you’re working in the heat we’re hoping for no surprise cold snaps ahead of lambing.
Woohoo! New books on familiar faces! Thank you! Cats, love them and have first hand knowledge/ experience with them. The only sure thing about a cat is that they will Always surprise you! Moggies are The Best. My current two are black with green eyes. Perfect witches cats….or aHumongous Tabby who’s twenty pounds of muscle. Belongs to some friends. Polydactyl would be even better, the better to get into and out of trouble.
More Ish….yes please, Pip on the back foot? Even more fun. Do they ever buy another ship? What eventually happens to all of Ish’s whelkies?
Dark Knight station? Yes please. You’ve tantalized with names of possible builders.
Shamans Coast? Again yes please.
Pick one? Flip a coin! Just don’t use one of Pips.
“Another Ishmael book” are the nicest three words I have seen today.
Does the Wizards Cat follow the Wizards Butler? I love that book and am all for a Wizards cat. 🙂
Yes. Yes, it does. 😀
YAY!!! lol I am surprised you don’t get tired of us hounding you for the next in a series 🙂 But I really do enjoy your stories 🙂
I recently came across your work on Kindle, starting with _In Ashes Born_, and didn’t realize it was part of a larger series. I read it in just a few days, and am currently chewing through _To Fire Called_. I am definitely enjoying your work, and will have to pick up the older Ishmael books.
Thanks. Good to know the new books are finding readers. 😀
Just finished the Wizard’s Butler, and absolutely loved it! Have been rather hung up in Martha Carr and Michael Anderle’s Oricerean universe; I quite enjoy urban fantasy, even though it’s a rather new genre for me, after 60+ years of inhaling the written word. I’ve found that reading a book or two (depending on the length) a day leaves you scrambling for new authors and interests.
I almost didn’t select it because it wasn’t in a series… I’m always wondering what became of characters, if they were introduced well and intriguing. Yours were both! Mulligan is/was too young to end, and Barbara enough more than a hint to grab one. Plus the niece, Naomi is never going to give up after one major attempt. Then, the artifact, I’ve yet to read about one that didn’t have a mind of its own.
I know, I’m babbling…lol.
I do want to thank you for writing books, I don’t do much anymore but read, so all authors hold a place in my heart!
Thanks, Susan.
Funny how a novel a day adds up to “I need a series!” so quickly, isn’t it 😀
Thanks for going on to Ishmael, just finished reading thru the series for the third time. Most people would ask why re-read a series, it’s because his story, especially the early years is absolutely the best fiction I have read. I hope his life evens out and he finds some lasting happiness. Sir I hope you are well and continue to enjoy life.
I’m going through my own third reread of the Ishmael books and just started In Ashes Born. It’s always a surprise that there are so few references to the Deep Black in the Share books. Admittedly Ish is firmly in the CPJCT side, but still…
Was that something that you didn’t have a firm concept for in the first few books and evolved as you got deeper into that universe?
To say that I had a firm concept of any of this would be a stretch. I started with a title and an opening scene in all of the Trader’s Tales.
In the Trader’s Tales, his only goal was job security. He pursued it with a single-minded tenacity that ultimately cost him more than the credits he earned. In the Seeker’s Tales, he started his healing and new growth.
The closest he came to the Toe-Holds was Odin’s Outpost, but he wore blinders about what that actually meant. Toe-Hold space grew from that as I began working through the development of the Western Annex. How did it get there? It’s a huge volume of space. Since I already had the mental model of “clipper ships” and “company towns,” it was a short hop to “ghost towns.”
But in the Western Annex the interstate by-pass never stopped traffic from coming. The natural resources never gave out. The restrictive nature of the High Line meant a significant portion of the Toe-Hold population lived happily right where they lived.
I think that you made a reasonable case for the Toe-Holds; it just seemed a little odd that the last two books, especially, had so few mentions of even the possibility of them existing. Admittedly Ish spent the bulk of his career with a single company, but I’d have expected more rumors amongst captains.
Just binged on all the Seeker and Smuggler books and am curious if you have plans for filling in the gap between the last of the Smuggler books and the meeting of Ish and Natalya. Plenty of time (and space!) for more adventures of Zee and Nats with their own mini-fleet before the meeting, I think.
I get the “How could he be in the business that long and not know?” question a lot. What can I say? Corporate blinders are pretty rugged.
And no. I don’t have any plans for filling the gap. I wrote the 3 Smuggler’s Tales to fill in the knowledge gap about the Toe-Holds and to give Natalya and Zoya an origin story so I could merge them into the mainline at the end of Seekers.
I don’t plan much, but I did have a plan for the 6 books that made up Seekers’ and Smugglers’.
Of course, then I botched it by writing and publishing the first Seeker before the first Smuggler. :/
Yeah, if he’d been in an indie ship, or in one of the fleets that worked both like the Saltzmans, I agree that he’d have been much more aware of the Toe-Holds.
So your Muse is a bit of a disorderly bitch, right? Nothing wrong with that; I’m just happy to hear that you’re working on another Ishmael story. You nicely avoided the trap of being too angsty and not enough in the Seeker books and I could relate as I’m terrible about picking up signals from women my own self.