Curmudgeon's Lair

The book came in just over 50k. It's the same length that most genre titles were published at back when I first started going to bookstores.

I am currently working on Blood Lies, book nine in the series and hope to have it finished by August. The rough draft is sitting at just slightly over 30k words and I suspect that it will be longer than Blood Hope. there are two more books in the series after Lies is finished.

I know that a lot of you are waiting for this. It has been over a year since I wrote another Dark Brothers of the Light novel. Well, fear not, I'm getting very close to finished. Despite tossing out a great portion of my previous draft, Blood Hope is getting close to finished.

42,821 / 75,000 (57.1%)

Dane Jayce, who some of you met in the Sacred King novels and in the first books of the Dark Brothers series, returns, bringing revelations about the origins of the demon-eaters, the true nature of Isranon's opponent, Gylorean Galee, and the locations of secret laboratories that survived the previous godwar.

Kady's Vengeance is out at Fictionwise and when I looked this morning was #13.

Publisher's Blurb:

Kady Maguire made her husband a promise. If anything happened to him she would flee to their allies in Creeya and not return without an army. When a treacherous assault by Malthus Estrobian leaves Kynyr crippled and close to death, Kady keeps her promise. Now heads are going to roll, as Kady places Kynyr's legendary grandfather, Todd Sinclair, in command of her forces. Cooley Blackwood steps into his father's shoes and goes in search of Stoneriver who is leading an army into Red Wolf to provide reinforcements for Kady. Malthus' ally, Belgair Doherty has rallied the Thanes of Red Wolf to place Malthus' son on the throne. Yet, neither Kady nor Malthus are prepared to handle the situation when the ancient vampire Lord Hoon arrives.



The Shadowed Princes has been turned into the editor with everything fixed.

One of my critters has still not forgiven me for one of the turns in the plot.

I sent the first draft of Blood Hope, the next book in the Dark Brothers of the Light series to my editor, Steven Beeho. While I'm waiting for his feedback, I am working on the first book in a new series that I plan to show around to agents. "Sins of Innocence" is the first novel in "The Child Profane and Sacrosanct" series.

okay, i sell well, but apparently I'm a washed up has-been. Have a look at the flamewar in progress over at Rusty Nail and this thread there also.

Enjoy the curmudgeonry.

With the Lycan Blood series completed, I have begun to get myself sorted out on two projects.

The first is the anthology, Things Are Not What They Seem. I need to go through the submissions I have already accepted and make certain that contracts went out on all of them. I'm thinking that the best way to approach that is to create a new folder and sort the copies of the contracts into it. The second is to make certain that I still have copies of everything from when I started it originally. Some of this will mean comparing what I have to what Natalie has and making some lists of it.

Once that is finished, I will place all the stories I have received recently into a new folder and start reading them and getting in touch with people.

The second project is Blood Hope, the next book in the Dark Brothers of the Light series. I am hoping that I can finish the series this year. At this point I estimate that, including Blood Hope, there are only three books left to complete.

First, I am doing a read through of what I have written already. Making a list of what needed to be done helped me a lot with the final book in the Lycan Blood series. It kept me focused. So i intend to do that with what I have so far on Hope.

On a rant note, if I should ever sell the DB series to a print company, I intend to put my original titles back on the books. I really dislike my publisher's insistence upon two words titles that start with the word 'blood.'

Next complaint, is that I really hate the first line of the blurb for Kady's Vengeance. Maybe I'm being vain, but I think the blurbs that i write and send Jean are better than the ones she writes herself. And nine times out of ten, when she does use the one I write, she adds something to them that makes me wince.

CritGit said recently that the Lycan Blood books read like westerns. He hit the nail on the head.

The playlist I assembled for writing them included the soundtrack to the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Additionally
The Battle of New Orleans by Johnny Horton
Big Bad John by Jimmy Dean
The Ballad of Ira Hayes
Sink the Bismark by Johnny Horton
Jim Bridger by Johnny Horton
Ghostriders in the Sky by Johnny Cash
The Highwayman by Johnny Cash
The Gambler by Willie Nelson

My Dark Brothers of the Light series is now available at amazon.com as part of their Kindle books line.

And GUD Magazine is now available at Fictionwise and they listed me in the byline.

Kady's Vengeance is currently sitting at 79k words. There are a few scenes in the middle that need to be expanded and the last four chapters still need work, but it's getting closer and closer. I believe that it will go to the critters before the end of the month.

People are wondering why the next Dark Brothers book has been delayed and other books have come out ahead of it. There are many reasons, but the largest is that I had to rethink it.

As the character of Stygean Loosestrife became more and more important to the plotline, he began to gradually take over the focus of the books. Then there were also the out of control side plots that I broke out into their own series.

When I pulled it all together in late spring, the first thing that I did was to rip out the side plots.

That allowed me to see just how much about Isranon there was compared to how much there was about Stygean.

Stygean had overwhelmed the story line. This happens sometimes and causes a protagonist to become a false protagonist. However, I did not want that fate to happen to Isranon. So I have had to gradually rethink the book and look for ways to alter the content and allow Isranon to keep his role as the primary protagonist. I also saw that many supporting characters had become lost in my obsession with Stygean. They need to be worked back into the main story line.

Blood Hope will contain one of the main turning points in the series and I find myself having to give it much more thought to get it right than any previous book in the series.

The fate of Stygean contributes heavily to the conclusion of the series and I must work this right for it to make sense and logic.

Hopefully everyone will bear with me while I try to get it right.