The Man Who Shot Thomas Edison, Released!

How times flies.  The Man Who Shot Thomas Edison, the third book in my West of the Warlock series, came out on August 1.  Those who want to purchase the Kindle version can now do so on Amazon.com, and you can also find the print version there as well.  To read the first 2 chapters, be sure to check out its listing slot at Martinus Publishing.

 

With this third installment now released, we now await the gamechanger: book #4!  I’ll have more to say about “Unforsaken” at a later date, but just as a teaser, I’ll let you know that it moves the timeline forward into the Roaring Twenties.  It brings back some familiar faces from the first 3 books (now in their golden years), along with some new and exciting characters to give us a multi-generational experience. All this, plus a special cameo appearance by J. Edgar Hoover!

The text for Unforsaken is now finished and ready for publication, and assuming there is any interest in The Man Who Shot Thomas Edison, I’ll release it sometime next year.  The haste with which the next book will be released will be contingent on how well this current one sells, so make sure to spread the word and get friends to buy it—assuming you want the next book to come out.

Well, have to go.  The 5th book in the series needs some plotting!

The Wrath of Carthage

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) takes place in November, and after failing to write anything of substance all year I'm finally going to sit down and commit myself to putting down another 50,000 words on a novel.  I've done it the last 3 years in a row (successfully), and I'm trying for a four-time win.

This year's novel is tentatively entitled "The Wrath of Carthage," and it is a continuation of my "West of the Warlock" series, and a direct sequel to last year's "Unforsaken," which is finished in a rough-draft cliffhanger fashion.  In fact, the story of "Unforsaken" leaves so many loose ends and unfinished threads lying around that I may end up merging these two books into one volume when it's all over, but for the moment I'm writing this as a second "novel."

So, what's this one going to be about?  Well, I don't want to give away too much, as it also continues some unresolved issues that are revealed in "The Man Who Shot Thomas Edison," the 3rd West of the Warlock novel that has yet to be released (details about its prospective 2014 release will be revealed in the Martinus Publishing Newsletter in November; to sign up, go to www.martinus.us and click the "Newsletter Sign-Up" button on the left side of the page).

Here's a quick blurb for The Wrath of Carthage:

The "West of the Warlock" saga continues into the roaring 20's. An ancient relic is uncovered, the key to unleashing an untold evil upon history. The mystic allies of fallen Carthage lay trapped in the past, and the unwitting meddling of elven mobsters could change the fate of the world. Earth's only chance lies in the hands Joella Talus, Boron Grimes, their ragtag band of allies, and some old foes. Failure means slavery and slaughter, yet to assure success, it could mean the demise of one of their own.  Dare they make the ultimate sacrifice to assure their future's survival, or will love condemn their world to oblivion?

This two-book set (Unforsaken/Wrath of Carthage) is not so much a departure from the "Fantasy Western" format as a continuation.  We get to see some old favorites like Joella Talus and Ron Grimes in old age, and see what the last 46 years have done for our heroes.  It's fun to explore what magic in the twenties would be like, and—as you might expect from a West of the Warlock novel—we'll have appearances from some famed historical figures (including J. Edgar Hoover and Presidential candidate Al Smith).

So, November's going to be a busy month for me.  I plan to have the backlog of Martinus Publishing anthology submissions read and decided upon by the end of October, so my calendar will be clear.  Sometimes I miss the days when I could just focus on my writing, and extraneous distractions didn't stand in the way.  Oh well, at least I'll get something done next month.  See you in the trenches.

NaNoWriMo Win #3

So, here we are, 30 November 2012.  It's the last day of National Novel Writing Month, and once again I have pulled it off by writing over 50,000 words in 30 days.  Bully for me!  Third try, third win.  Cue applause.

Of the three years I have participated in NaNoWriMo, this has been my slowest.  The first year, I finished a day early.  Last year, I blew right through it and was done a week early.  This year, however, my writing pace was beleaguered.  I just had too many things going on, and different roadblocks that kept getting thrown up in my face.  That, and I was writing a novel that I had to keep researching on and off in the middle of the process.  That slowed me down.  Then, there was the whole shutdown of Hall Brothers Entertainment this week that could have put me in a pit of depression and been a good excuse to give up and fall short, but I didn't.  I rallied toward the end and marched across the finish line on this, the final day of the competition.

So, where do I go from here?  To be fair, winning NaNoWriMo is only the beginning, and "Unforsaken" is nowhere near complete.  This book is looking to be more of a 100k novel than the 50k I currently have, so writing will continue this winter.  There are some other things that are going to slow my pace now that I'm not under pressure to reach a specific goal in a short amount of time.  Since this is the 4th book in a series which still hasn't seen the second book released yet, there is no rush to complete it.  If I have it done in a few months, I'll be happy.

Here's to another fruitful year.  Check this blog tomorrow for some exciting news!

Doing it Again: NaNoWriMo 2012!

It's that time of year again: Another November, another National Novel Writing Month challenge!  For those of you who aren't familiar with the concept, it's an exercise where thousands of writers around the world each attempt to put down 50,000 words to a new novel in 30 days (the month of November).  I have participated in this for the last two years and succeeded at each attempt.  This will be my third try, and this year's novel is going to be another sequel.

After great deliberation, I've decided to write "Unforsaken," the 4th book in my "Fantasy Western" series, though rather than a direct sequel, this will be a departure from the first 3 books.  This one will send us forward, into the Roaring Twenties, giving us a new perspective on how this parallel universe shall progress.

Here's a quick synopsis of the proposed work:

45 years have passed since Joella Talus lost the love of her life.  All those long years, she has fought through adversity, challenged her status in the world by leading suffragette movements and living independently.  Yet, now, as an aging elvish lady, she pursues the only thing that truly matters to her; the man that she lost all those years ago.  To save him, she will have to recruit an eclectic array of allies, from the human grandson of the dwarf Boron Grimes, to the half-witted sheriff of the ghost town of Selwood, and the descendants of her would be suitor, the scandalous Solen Lucca.

As Joella moves ever closer to her goal, of rescuing the man of her dreams, dark forces conspire against her.  Devil worshipping witches, haughty Warlock Guild operatives, bootlegging mobsters, even an undead US Senator; they all will stop at nothing to thwart her.  Yet, can the forces of evil truly stand strong enough to overcome the driving force behind Joella's grand design?

This is something I was planning to write earlier.  I came up with the initial idea for this book last winter, shortly after completing the 3rd book in the series.  However, other projects got in the way, and all I ever got done was some plotting, and a "chapter," which is more of a prologue.  This is something I really need to write, as the 3rd book ends as something of a cliffhanger.  It would be unfair for me to write something else at this time, and leave the series unfulfilled.

In 2011, I finished NaNoWriMo a week early, and I hope to do as well this year, but with everything going on in my life there's no telling.  I will strive to do my best again, and refuse to accept defeat, or dehands for that matter!  I know, that pun really doesn't work.  Back to the drawing board...

Keep track of my NaNoWriMo progress here.

Unforsaken: A New Beginning

It's done!  At long last, after tinkering with the last chapters since December, I can finally say that I have completed "The Six-Gun Conjurer."  It wasn't really an arduous process, but the last ten thousand words just took their sweet time getting onto the page.  I had a lot of distractions along the way, and other projects in the works that delayed me, but now this is one project that is complete—or almost.  Of course, I'll be giving it another once-over before sending it off to the publisher, and they'll of course have some suggestions as well.  But for the most part, it is complete.

Finishing off this third volume in my "Fantasy Western" series, I was thinking of taking a break, and moving on to something new or perhaps revisiting a different franchise in my growing repertoire of invented worlds.  However, yet again I feel compelled to continue this series, and answer some very big questions that linger at the end of the three book set.

The ending of "The Six-Gun Conjurer" leaves us with some very large unresolved threads.  While the book doesn't end on a cliffhanger, it does leave certain characters in a place where readers will be asking, "What happens next?"  One character in particular will be left in such a predicament that people will be demanding the fourth book, and won't be satisfied until they learn the fate of said character.  Therefore, I can't just leave things in limbo, and have begun work on the next volume in the series, tentatively entitled "Unforsaken."

I can't share a whole lot about this fourth volume in the series, largely because it would take too much explanation, since the second book is still pending publication this spring/summer.  I don't want to send out too many spoilers, but I will say that the fourth book will take us beyond familiar settings, and into a whole new realm of possibilities.  We'll still have several of the same cast of characters, but also a lot of new ones, and a whole host of concepts that will bring the series to a whole new height of excellence.

I'm really excited about this fourth book, since it does allow me to write something a little different than what I've been writing, while sticking with familiar characters and their universe.  Let's hope for big things to happen, and remember: Never trust an elf with a Tommy-Gun!