"Defending Walls" release

At last, the second novel in the Herrick Quartet, "Defending Walls", has been released and is available on-line at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Waterstones (among others).

The cover design is by Grazyna Nowottka and is absolutely brilliant; Carcassonne in all its glory and darkness. I can not give her enough thanks and gratitude for her fine work. She has really made this release something to be proud of.

Also, much thanks go to Joe, of New Generation Publishing, whose e-mails and hand-holding did much to ease the long wait.

And, of course, thanks to Richard, the dearest and most frustrating editor alive, for his demands and prodding and more demands. He is the cause of much torn hair and rewrites, and the reason for many things that were, honestly, improvements.

When good research...

...does not so much go bad as become interminable. Defending Walls is enduring the wait for the galleys, which is unnerving at the best of times, while the research needed for the third book seems to be a self-seeding process. The more that is done, the more details are uncovered that need to be at least known if not covered in depth. It never ceases to astonish me how much work is needed to verify a throwaway comment by an extremely secondary character.

Fascinating though it all is, the slow speed of the process never fails to be somewhat alarming - two weeks researching produces less than 500 words at times.

(And then of course the Dread Editor will doubtlessly demand their removal, but I choose not to think about this.)

A happier thought is that the galleys and proofing and rechecking may - may - be in time for a Christmas release. Which would be an astounding thing all on its own...

A good deal

Just found out that Legends has agreed to publish the remaining books in the series. I'm just as pleased and as proud as I can be.

The books (all 4) will be known as the "Herrick series" and, I believe will be released one per year in this order (subject to change): Icy Pavements, Song at Morning, Basilisk Stare, Shivered Glass.

And in between, I work on Damon and Pythias and any other ideas that crop up.

The wait is over!

My book has finally made it from the publisher to the reality of Amazon and other dealers (or will in the next several days). I have an ISBN and everything. (9781849238380)

Now... time to take a deep breath, and relax... because next week I must begin concentrating on promotional things.

And for your perusal, the back cover synopsis:

Peter Scudamore, a former captain in the Royalist Army, has unwittingly become a tool in a game much larger than it seems.

When Peter assists the English Queen in her escape to Paris , he finds himself caught up in the machinations of the infamous Corvay, a man determined to be the final word in espionage - and becomes friends with the enigmatic Guyon de Chesnay, a scholar and tutor of debate at the Sorbonne. Guyon's service, too, is eventually bought by Corvay, but at a price he is unwilling to disclose, and which is directly linked to the Archbishop de Retz of Paris .

As the two men fight to survive the intrigues of Court and Church, and those of a man who wants to gain power in his own right, they grow closer to each other in ways that neither one would ever have expected.

Galleys

Galleys were received, checked and sent back to the publisher. Hopefully, this is a good sign that they are actually going to stick to the June 1st release date. *crosses fingers*

Book 2 - complete. *pats it*

Book 3 - well on it's way. Now... how much do I know about Church law? Not enough.. time for more study.

Damon & Pythias - on hold for Book 3, at the moment.

And now my editor is wanting an outline, or at least prodding strongly for me to set up plotlines for a second Herrick trilogy set about 20 years after the end of Book three.

I really need to quit my day job. Really.

Note to self: Win the lottery so that day job may be quit.

New Date

Well, I have yet another new date for the release of "Icy Pavements" - June 1st. It's a bit discouraging to have to wait longer, but I keep hoping its for the best. You always like to think it's so that something can be better, more perfect, before the release, but the waiting is a killer. *G*

New release date

Well, if all goes well, Icy Pavements should hit Amazon and the rest on February 22. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that this is going to actually be it.