A New Game Plan

I should have announced it months ago, but I was reluctant to do so because I feel some readers will be disappointed. I also tried to think of a way in which I could gently ease into the announcement, but I’m no good at easing into anything. So here goes:

 

Whisperings book three will not be Demon on a Distant Shore.

 

I enjoyed writing Demon on a Distant Shore. It has a great plot, new fun characters, humor, mystery and some sexy interaction between Tiff and Royal. But, it takes the reader away from the themes I’ve been building in the series: the mystery of the Gelpha and Dark Cousins, and of Tiff herself. I would rather see everything brought to light and those mysteries resolved in four consecutive novels. I am, therefore, working on a new book three, tentatively titled Dead Demon Walking. Book four will be Demon Demon Burning Bright. After those four novels, I would like to write “adventures,” which continue Tiff and Royal’s life and work together, but which can be read as independent stories. Demon on a Distant Shore will be one of them.

 

Don’t worry―Jack’s past and his relationship with Dale Jericho will be revealed in book three!

 

When will the new book be published? I can’t give an exact date but I estimate late summer 2011. I know some readers think an author zips out a book and hey presto it’s up on Amazon, but the process is actually lengthy and involved. First comes the first draft, and as not all writers are alike in the speed with which they create, I can’t put a timeline to that. Then they go through it again, editing, expanding, adding. When they think it’s as good as it can get, they send it to an editor or beta readers. Who send it back and tell the writer they were sadly mistaken if they thought they had a finished product. More editing, more amending, more critiques. And if they’re like me, they have “resting” periods in between where they let the manuscript sit, because reading it over and over again, you tend to see what you think you should, not what you actually typed. Getting away from the manuscript freshens your eye. Finally, the manuscript is ready, but the book is not. If you’re an Indie author you either pay someone to create your cover, or create it yourself. For me, from the first typed word to the finished product normally takes about a year, and I started Dead Demon Walking in August.

 

On the home front, I’m preparing for winter. Lawns are green and flowers bloom down in the Salt Lake Valley, but up here the trees have already shed half their leaves and my plants have given up the ghost. After a lovely Indian summer, gray clouds hang low in the sky and we’ve had three inches of rain in the past week. Snow mottles the highest mountain peaks. The lawnmower and snow-blower have reversed position; the lawnmower is in the shed, the snow-blower in the garage. We’ll store the deck furniture this weekend, take the air conditioners out the windows, and attach the blade to one of our ATVs to use as a snowplow. Next weekend the Christmas lights will go up on the eaves, because when you live in the mountains you want them up before the first snowstorm.

 

When everything outside is covered in five feet of snow, I’ll be in the living room in front of a blazing fire, laptop on my knees, working on Whisperings. I’m not a fan of winter, but it is the perfect season in which to write.

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