April 15, 2004 The Wrath of Angels is complete and turned into the publisher. That's the good news. The bad news is that the novel won't be seeing print for quite some time. Pocket Books had a round of layoffs and cut a number of projects, and although the novel survived the cut, the release date for it has been pushed back to October 2005. I'm very sorry for the delay, but I'm nevertheless quite pleased to be finally done with the book.
In other news, Stalking the Beast, a thriller written with Duane Franklet, will be published by Pocket Books in June 2005. Also, I'm happy to announce that I'm currently busy writing a three-volume graphic novel called Archangels: The Fall together with Archangels' creator Patrick Scott, which should be out this Christmas season.
For those of you who have been waiting, you may be interested in reading this false start on the third novel. It's giving nothing away, as I completely trashed this storyline although it did lead to some interesting elements that made it into the actual book. I was simply wondering what ever happened to those children of angels who pursued human women? Some were the giants of the Old Testament, of course, but perhaps some inherited more from their fathers than their mothers....
August 5, 2003
Work on The Wrath of Angels is finally rolling smoothly, and I'm anticipating finishing the first draft in October. I think it's a good blend of the intensity of the second book with the grander scale of the first one, which I hope everyone will find interesting. The books are finally getting a little media coverage, as WorldNetDaily interviewed me this week - the Christian media has been completely AWOL - so it's nice to see that interest is picking up.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that two readers had put The War in Heaven and The World in Shadow on their favorite book lists, and I've added some more books to the reviews page as well. I finally got around to reading the Harry Potter books this summer, and while I thought they were pretty good, I thought it was an even better example of the role that luck plays in determining bestsellers. JK Rowlings is fine, but I very much prefer Susan Cooper or Lloyd Alexander for children's novels.
March 12, 2003
Threw a few more reviews up, and I have to mention that I was very impressed with The Panther's Hoard, by Nancy Varian Berberick, which really surprised me with its literary quality despite the lame pulp fantasy name. It's no wonder no one takes the SFWA seriously, how on Earth is it that I'd never heard of this novel while poorly written drek like The Quantum Rose is winning the Nebula award? I haven't taken public awards seriously since scoring a goal a game for my junior varsity soccer team and losing out on the MVP to a very nice guy who was justifiably popular, (it was really embarrassing - the coach came up with this impromptu scoring award just because he was appalled about the whole thing), but I simply hate it when inventive, moving, well-written works are overlooked and mediocrity is celebrated.
February 24, 2003
I've cleaned up a few things here and there, added a few more reviews and also put up a little poll which allows you to vote on your favorite short story here. I just finished a project, (more about that later), so I should be able to complete and post one or two more short stories here in the next month. One is a neo-Mythos story set in World War II Switzerland complete with graduates of Miskatonic's most famous center of higher learning, the other is a sci-fi mystery set the far future. I think the first has potential, I'm a little less sure about the latter. I'm increasingly beginning to suspect that I'm a better mystery reader than mystery writer.
February 10, 2003
After putting a stat tracker on this site, I've been surprised and gratified to learn that about 25 to 35 people visit this site every day, reading the short stories and otherwise checking things out. It's also a little embarrassing, as I haven't exactly gone to a lot of trouble finishing things I've started and whatnot, but I'll try to do a little better in the future. Anyhow, I've added a small book reviews section called The Eternal Review of Books which you might want to have a look at; the latest review is Storm Front by Jim Butcher.
Now that I know someone is actually reading these stories, I have to tell you to please feel free to let me know what you think of them. They're primarily written for my own amusement, but I'm still curious to know what works and what doesn't.
December 19, 2002
Against my better judgement, I sent off The Hoblets of Wiccam Fensboro to Science Fiction and Fantasy and so added to my small, but growing collection of magazine rejection letters. But I'm mostly writing these stories for my own amusement anyhow, so that's all right. I've discarded my third start on "The Wrath of Angels" and am much happier with what is now the fourth start on what I hope will be a little more of a sweeping epic than were the first two books. I think Pocket is much happier now that I've taken the focus off what turned out to be my rather unconventional take on the Nephilim. But more on that later....
September 9, 2002
Okay, so "The World in Shadow" is finally starting to hit the stores.... Here's one of the first reviews, from an entertainment industry magazine called The Trades. It's rather positive, although I don't quite understand how a portrayal of high school zeros as RPG gamers amounts to stereotypical characterizing. I've just never seen nor heard of a single high school where the homecoming king is a gamer and the athletes are losers. Then again, the reviewer DOES appear to have a suspiciously high level of interest in comix, so... well, I can't really cast any stones here, considering how much Neverwinter Nights I've been playing of late.
August 15, 2002
I think I've finally figured out why I don't bother publishing my short fiction... it's just a lot easier to sell my novels. "Master of Cats" was rejected for the new Imaginings anthology, and although the editor described it as "very well-written" in encouraging me to submit it elsewhere, I don't think I'll bother. Which means, of course, that you can read it right here.
Still, I've heard good things about the anthology from my inside sources at Pocket Books, so I'm looking forward to seeing the novellas that were selected for it next year.
November 11, 2001
I spoke with Pocket Books this week, and we have a solid release date for both the relaunch of The War in Heaven as well as The World in Shadow. Both books will be released simultaneously as trade paperbacks in September, 2002. There will be a new cover for The War in Heaven and the books will be widely available in both Christian and mainstream bookstores.
Needless to say, I'm pleased that there won't be any additional delay in getting the second book in the series out to those who enjoyed the first one.
March 30, 2001
It's not official yet, as it always takes some time to iron out the various details, but I'm pleased to be able to say that my publisher and I have agreed on three more books that will be published by Pocket Books over the next few years. One of these will be the third in the Eternal Warriors series, while two will be unrelated thrillers which I will be co-writing with another Pocket Books author, who at the present time shall remain nameless.
Readers of the Eternal Warriors books shouldn't worry, though, as I'm well ahead of Pocket's publishing schedule, and work on the third book is already underway. I am planning to keep to my original plan of writing one Eternal Warriors book each year, regardless of what else I'm working on or when they are actually released.
January 20, 2001
I don't think that the 20th can be characterized as early January, but in any event, the first draft of THE WORLD IN SHADOW is complete... as complete as a first draft can be, that is. There are a few scenes that I'm still tempted to futz with, but it's really up in the air whether that would improve anything. At this point, it's probably best to get the manuscript out to Carol and see what she thinks. Right now I'm looking at a 450-page book, but the odds are good that it will be cut down a bit before the final printing.
December 15, 2000
Well, the good news is that THE WAR IN HEAVEN is finally going to be available in Christian bookstores. For various and complicated reasons in which you are extremely unlikely to be interested, my publisher isn't set up to effectively distribute to the Christian bookstores. But they have been good enough to arrange for another method of getting the books out there, and last week, the first case of books went out to the Northwestern Bookstore offices in Minneapolis. Christian bookstores interested in carrying the novel should email the new distributor.
A Merry Christmas to everyone, and I hope you're not too swamped by the season to forget the event we are celebrating, namely, the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
November 5, 2000
I just hit the one hundred thousand word mark on the first draft of THE WORLD IN SHADOW. That's about four hundred pages printed, which is roughly the length of THE WAR IN HEAVEN, but don't get too excited because this doesn't mean I'm done yet. There's still about four more major scenes to go, and then I'll get started with the process of slashing out the extraneous stuff, making sure the details all fit together, and separating the document into chapters. I chatted with my editor this week, and I'm planning to fire the first draft out to her in early January.