Update to the Update

With my technical editor, Michael Scott!

It has been a busy and gratifying few weeks since Blood of the Dragon was released! The book has remained in Amazon’s Top 100 for young adult fantasy. The support I’ve received so far gives me hope I can retire completely from any office work and just write and coach swimming, my two passions.

I’ve been doing final edits on the rough draft of the sequel, Heart of the Dragon, readying it for my technical editor, Michael Scott, as we get ready for our hoped-for publication date of October 1, 2019.

Plotting and writing for Book 3 has reached a sudden standstill, however, as I’m contemplating restarting from scratch and pushing Book 3’s plot back to Book 4! My original plan had been for the traditional trilogy, but now I’m not so certain. By the time I finish editing Book 2, I hope to have made a decision.

I’ve also re-edited the first three episodes of The Prince Problem. Lady Belinda now smokes cigarillos and some other very minor changes, but at long last I’m finishing Episode 4 and hope to publish it soon!

Finally, I’ve revisited my first series (never published), The White Magic. I began this High Fantasy series in my dim and distant past (when I was only 15) shortly after reading The Lord of the Rings for the first time. The first book, Rise of the Clairvoyant, did not receive much positive attention from agents. After a nephew as well as my content editor read the first few chapters, they made clear what I hadn’t seen: WAY too many similarities to Tolkien’s stories! I laugh now (with an appropriate cringe) at what I couldn’t see before.

For the past year, I’ve slowly rethought what needed to happen, as I love the overall story (the first two books of a planned trilogy are done), and I knew simple cosmetic changes were not enough. In the past few weeks, several ideas have coalesced and I’m about ready to restart this series. This go-round, hopefully, will bear far less resemblance to Tolkien!

At the same time, my swimmers are nearing the end of the Short Course season, and preparing them continues to (most happily) occupy the majority of my time.

Keep an eye here for a new update, hopefully soon!!