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.

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.

The story that went up on the website yesterday was originally published in a hard cover anthology titled I, Vampire: Interviews with the Undead. "Visiting the Neighbors" was the first piece of fiction I completed after a 15 year writers block.

I never stopped writing. When I could not make fiction come together for me any longer, I switched over to journalism and non-fiction. It would still be several years before writing began to come easy for me again. I am of the opinion that for many writer's block occurs in response to stresses in real life that become overwhelming.

Until last year, VtN was the only first person story I had ever written.

The following used to be on the front page of my website, but it was dropped when we revised it last March.
_____________

In the beginning, there was the Godwar...
It erupted in the night and brought a bloody dawn of burning temples, crumbling cities, and terrified people. The jihad of the Hellgod Bellocar swept across the continents of the world called Daverana with technology and magic: nuclear holocausts, biological warfare, genetic mutations, and ecological disasters. Humans and their allied races perished in the millions. Vampires and demons walked the world openly. One by one each nation that resisted fell. The Gods of Light were slain. Finally only one of them remained, Ishla the Tinkerer and she hid herself. When all appeared lost, Ishla gave forth a tremendous cry for help into the void and it was answered. One winter's solstice as the last free realm was about to fall, eight young god with their legions, their creatures, and their demi-gods as captains of their hosts emerged from the veils between the worlds.
The young gods threw back the Hellgod, slew his sons and many of his wives, hunted down his creatures and his monsters. Torundar the Storm Lord; Kalirion Sun-Lord; Tala of the moon and hunt; Davera, earthmother; Badonth, God of Aggressive Warfare and Vengeance; Aroana, The Lady of the Walled Cities; Nerindalori of the Waves, Mistress of the Depths; Willodarus, Lord of the Woodlands and Wild Creatures: they were the young gods that conquered, yet in the end were not strong enough to destroy Bellocar and so sealed him up behind walls of magic and stone, raising a tremendous escarpment to surround him.
But now Bellocar is close to getting free again and a fresh godwar threatens the world that the young gods have so lovingly rebuilt and made habitable again for refugees from countless worlds. Demi-gods and heroes stand between the minions of Bellocar and the halls of the Gods of Light.
Welcome to the fiction of Janrae Frank.

I'm still feeling grouchy. Sometimes it's just because I'm tired or stressed. Right now, Mr. Porky is back to leaving me death threats and threats to steal my books to punish me for imagined slights.

I have resisted writing another rebuttal because I get tired of it. He knows better than to try coming to Massachusetts to get me (he's in Illinois) because I practice cast iron fry pan diplomacy as in WHOMP!

Sales of the new book are doing well. I really have no right to complain. But I'm still feeling grouchy. I assume that what I need is more access to my English boytoy.

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.