And then... the Apocalypse!

Yeesh. Has it really been November since I put up a post here? Admittedly, I've been a wee bit busy. As readers of my other blog know, it's just been announced that I'm the 2015 Piedmont Laureate. This means I'll be teaching several workshops and making several other appearances in the coming year. Tomorrow, for instance, I'll be doing a reading at the Chapel Hill Library at 4pm. Today, I sat down for an hour with a reporter for my local paper for an interview. Since the beginning of the year, I've attended two conventions, a First Monday Classics book club, and the arts meeting where I was introduced as Piedmont Laureate. Not a lot of time at home! No one can say I'm resting on my laurels, even though I now actually have them.

When I have been at home, I've been working hard on a secret project. Last year, I did a series of blog posts where I publicly wrestled with what book to write next. I announced I was going to write a sequel to Cut Up Girl called Big Ape, and discussed how I'd started outlining and doing other pre-work on the book. Then... stuff happened.

Good stuff! I had mentioned here a while back that I intended to write a 4th Dragon Apocalypse book, but couldn't justify doing it until late 2015 because that would be the earliest that I could get the rights reverted back for Witchbreaker, the last book published by Solaris. But, I'm pleased to announce that we've since reached an agreement for them to revert the entire Dragon Apocalypse series to me. So, I've been working silently to prepare Greatshadow, Hush, and Witchbreaker print and ebook editions, and I'm happy to announce that Greatshadow and Hush are now available for purchase. Witchbreaker will be following soon. Then, my big writing project for the year will be to finish the fourth book.

I've been thinking about this book a long time. I left the characters in Witchbreaker in somewhat of a cliffhanger, and I've had a couple of years to daydream about what happens next: The world comes to an end. Seriously, not to give a spoiler here, but the next stage for the Dragon Apocalypse series is the eponymous event. By the end of chapter one, everyone's dead. The rest of the book is just blank pages! Or... maybe not, considering that there's been a self-identified time traveler among the Dragon Apocalypse cast since the first book. Finally, the full story of the Black Swan will be revealed. Plus, we'll find out if Slate and Sorrow can find true love in Hell, and learn the fate of Infidel and Stagger's daughter, and discover why Greatshadow had Stagger vow that she'd be raised in his domain. Oh, and we'll see if Numinous Merchant is the Omega Reader, and find out how Zetetic wound up in a painting done centuries before he was born. I can't wait to write this book, because I really want to see how it ends! Did I actually have some master plan all along, or was I just throwing in random stuff and hoping something would eventually come together? We'll find out!

For readers hoping to see Cut Up Girl coming out right about now... patience. I want to see it published more than anyone, but I don't see the point of releasing it until I actually have Big Ape ready to go. When those books come out, I don't want to leave readers dangling for almost two years the way it's worked out with the Dragon Apocalypse. I promise, it will all be worth the wait.

In the meantime, if you haven't read Greatshadow or Hush, now's a great time to try them. I've done a thorough update on both books, tightening the prose, fixing small typos that slipped through the former publisher's editing. They have new covers: Greatshadow is done by Jeremy Cavin (who did covers for Nobody, Burn Baby Burn, and Bad Wizard). Hush is done by Giared Terrelli, an artist I met at the NC Comicon, who I hope to work with again soon.

Ebook and print editions are available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other fine retailers.