Good grief, it has been a while since I posted anything here!
A lot of my time has been taken up with writing and editing two books... TWO!
The first, "Last Winter Sun" - A-Team versus World of Warcraft (my own elevator pitch line) - is done and almost finished. How can it be done and almost finished you ask? Well, you didn't, but I'll answer it anyway.
I've finished writing the book and it has been edited. After that, I put it away for a month or two, while I wrote another book, and am now re-reading it, tidying up any little bits (sometimes just one word in a chapter) and sharpening the edges. I'm pretty pleased with it... and if, when it is released around May/June time, you pick it up and read it, you might just see some links with my other books. All of which means, if you haven't read them - you've got a good excuse to do so now! The book is also off with a respected reader/blogger for their thoughts. It is quite possible there will be some tweaks to come! So it is done, but not finished. See.
The other book, SwordMaster, is set in an entirely new world. I've drawn maps of the land the story is set in - and being a well-trained geographer, they cover terrain, ecosystems, economies and everything else. The country in which this one is set is based on, to a small degree, YellowStone Caldera - will it erupt? OOoohhh... that's an idea. (makes a note in his journal).
I need come up with an elevator pitch for this one. It is MUCH darker than anything I've written before as well.
A spy, a swordsman and an outlaw walk into a bar.
A man with one arm tries to build a new life while a minstrel sees colours in her music.
There's gold in them there hills!
They need work, clearly.
Anyway, this one too is done but not finished. My trusted first-reader/editor has the book at the moment and I get regular updates - which thankfully say "really enjoying it" so far!
After all the editing, grinding and polishing is done... I'll probably start in on Corin Hayes #4 - I have an idea. My planning board, above my computer, has 3 books outlined on it - lots of choices and lots of writing to do. And, just so you know, if you sign up to the mailing list (maybe 1 to 3 a year), you can pick up a free story and find links to another free one! Two stories for free!