Following Up...

Happy Memorial Day Weekend, all! Just thought I'd follow up on my previous post to let you know the contracts are signed and the ink is dry: more Harmony Black novels are confirmed. There might be a new spinoff trilogy in the wings, too, but I won't have any news about that for a while, and I can't talk about it until the last Revanche Cycle novel is out (because spoilers).

(And did I mention that last book, Queen of the Night, is coming out on June 28? Just about one month to go, final edits are done, and it's in layout now. I can honestly say I've never been this nervous about a new release, seeing as I had to tie every up every single plot thread in the saga and bring it all to a hopefully-satisfying conclusion. Not everybody gets a happy ending, but ideally everybody gets the right ending.)

Here's what I can tell you about the next Harmony books: my publisher has given me free reign to retool and focus the series as I see fit. I'll be taking a lot of reader feedback into account, as well as the lessons I've learned from the first two. Don't expect massive, radical changes -- it's not jumping into a new genre, I won't be wiping out half the cast, and there will continue to be No Vampires, Ever -- but I'll be honing in on the core themes and tightening the story up.

The working titles of the next two books, subject to change, are House of Wolves and A Clockwork Paladin. The original concept for the series was to spend the first four books highlighting one team member and some unfinished trouble from their past; book one was Harmony, of course, and book two was Kevin. Book three turns the spotlight on Jessie, who has to confront her family legacy as she struggles with her increasingly out-of-control powers and the malign influence of the King of Wolves. In book four, the consequences of a secret, unethical experiment from April's past emerge, putting the entire team in danger.

And then? Well, book four is also where the truth about Operation Cold Spectrum is finally revealed. You know that gimmicky comic-book thing where they breathlessly announce that "after this, nothing will ever be the same," but it's pretty much never true? In this case, believe it.

That's all I can share for now; no launch windows yet, but I'll let you know as soon as I find out. Now I'd better get back to work on The Castle Doctrine, which is about halfway done and still on track for an October release. One thing I can share about that: for quite some time a lot of people have wanted to see Faust "level up" a little bit, or at least expand his magical repertoire. That happens. Now, he's never going to be flinging fireballs with a word and blowing up buildings -- it just isn't that kind of series -- but I think I've found a way to spice things up a little that folks are going to enjoy and stays true to the character and his world. That's it from me, talk to you soon!

More Harmony, On the Way

Happy Tuesday! Pleased to announce that I'm in contract negotiations with 47North about terms for more Harmony Black novels and possibly another spinoff trilogy, details to be hashed out. All I can say for now is that there -will- be more Harmony books, and they don't want to keep you waiting any more than I do -- book three isn't going to take another year to drop, that's a near-guarantee. More info to come as soon as the ink is dry. Let's just gonna say I'm going to be super-busy. Like...more than I already was.

Thanks to you all, again, for standing by me. And Harmony 3 is going to be the best yet, I promise. I've got a killer plot laid out, some payoffs on the mysteries of the first two books about to drop, and...well, you'll see.

Also...hm. How to word this. The first two books were written before the first one launched. I know a lot of people really dislike one particular character/subplot -- the email has been voluminous about that. While at the end of the day, I have to write the story I think is most "true" and I have to call the shots, I DO listen to your feedback and suggestions. Sooooo, book three will have some slight changes I think most of you will enjoy. Suffice to say that the emotional core of the series is about Harmony and Jessie solving occult mysteries and kicking ass together, and book three will focus on that.

Oh, and before I go, since it's been out for a few weeks, I'm now going to make a cryptic statement. This statement will only make sense to people who have read both the epilogue of Red Knight Falling and Terms of Surrender. If you haven't, don't worry, it won't spoil anything. If you have, well, I'm confirming this because I've gotten a few emails about it this week.

Yes, Adam has a Cutting Knife. The implications of this statement are left to you to decide. G'night, everybody!

Happy Mothers' Day

Happy mothers' day, y'all! I was hoping to get this up sooner, but I've been (appropriately, natch) visiting family all day. A happy day to those of you doing the hard and oft-thankless task of bringing more folks up right; one day isn't enough of a thank-you for that. A happy day to those of you who want to be mothers, but biology or circumstance are standing in the way. This is your day too.

And a special thanks to you art-mothers, you who birth acting and words and beauty upon the world. From a father of books, you know you're in my heart, always.

As an aside, my buddy Carl pointed out that I don't have a lot of great motherly role models in my books. I said, "Well... there's Emma Loomis. She's not terrible."

"Is that the one you really want to go with? Hell's accountant?"

"What about Nadine?"

"She raised Nyx. Nyx. You are not helping yourself here."

"Nessa Fieri. Nessa is a great mom."

"...seriously?"

"Nessa loves her kids, she wants them to excel -- or else -- and she places a high value on education."

"You know," he said, "you...might actually have a point."

Quick Red Knight Update

Good morning, all! Just a quick update on Red Knight Falling: it's come to my attention that a small number of people reading on iPads may encounter a garbled-looking font in a couple of paragraphs towards the end of the book. Apparently there was a rare bug the typesetters didn't know about. 99% of readers won't have this problem, but if you are affected, the publisher rolled out a quick fix. On Amazon, just go to Your Account > Manage Your Content, then Devices > Your Content, and there should be an "Update Available" button next to the book's title. Just click that and it'll download a new, corrected-font version over the original copy. Sorry about that!

And with that, I'm off to Vegas on my research trip. Stay safe, have a great weekend, and don't blow anything up while I'm gone. That's my job.

Red Knight Falling, and an Important Anniversary

Well, today's the day. Harmony Black book two, Red Knight Falling, is live! You can grab it on Amazon, or pick up the audio version on Audible. (I'm also told it should be up, or will be shortly, on iBooks.) In the wake of their hunt for the Bogeyman, Harmony and her team are sent to the Oregon wilderness to retrieve the debris from a fallen satellite. So why is a conspiracy aimed at fighting supernatural threats getting involved in weird science? You'll just have to read and find out.

Today marks another very special occasion: two years ago today, my first novel (The Long Way Down) hit the shelves, marking my debut as a professional writer. Two years is longer than it sounds! I've learned so much since then, tried hard to evolve as a writer and a storyteller, aiming to improve my game every single day. Whether you've been with me since day one or just found me a few days ago, I wanted to take a moment to thank you. A writer is nothing without fans; on the hardest days, the dead end alleys, all those moments I was sure I was through, it's you who kept me going and kept me aiming for the top.

So tonight I'll be pouring a glass of absinthe to celebrate the new release (because you can take the writer out of the goth clothes, but you can't take the goth out of the writer), and raising it in a toast to you. Thank you.

What's next? Well, I'm going over final edits on Queen of the Night, the final book of the Revanche Cycle, which I'm aiming to bring out in early July. And of course, working on the next full Daniel Faust novel, The Castle Doctrine. Pretty soon I should be hearing back from 47North on the fate of the Harmony series and if/when they'll be scheduling more releases, so I'll let you know when that's been decided.

On that note, a couple of people have asked what happens if 47North doesn't renew my contract for the Harmony books. The answer is, I get the rights back and self-publish the rest of the series until it reaches a satisfying conclusion. I will never, ever, start a story and leave it without an ending: that's my promise to you. That said, their backing makes it much easier for your devoted scribe to enjoy little frivolous pleasures like "mortgage payments" and "food," so let's hope it's a yes.

That's it from me: I hope you enjoy Red Knight Falling, and I'll talk to you soon. Big things coming, and a lot of fun in the pipeline. Let me put it this way: if 2016's releases are the fuse, the books scheduled for 2017 are the dynamite.

Take care,
Craig

This Time, Not a Joke

Amazing what can change in a year. This time last year, I put up an April First post about the Daniel Faust series getting a movie adaptation (by Ewe Boll, no less, with Daniel and half-angel guardian-of-humanity Caitlin going on a wacky quest for pirate gold). The main joke, of course, was that there's no way the Faust series would ever get adapted to the screen.

Well...

It's way too early to share details, but I can tell you that I'm in talks with some very experienced, skilled producers (not Ewe Boll) to put together a pilot for a Faust television series. These guys know their craft, and they've got the same vision I do: a serious, dramatic series that won't tone down or compromise any of the original story. Now, I don't want to get anybody's hopes up (including mine): maybe one in a hundred exploratory projects actually gets to the "shooting a pilot" stage, and one in a hundred pilots makes it to air, and I'm probably OVERstating those odds. That said, Things are Moving, and I'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, I'm back to work. Progress on The Castle Doctrine is on hold until my research trip to Vegas next month (I have to walk through a few real-life venues and check the angles before I can set scenes there, to get the details right), so I'm working on The Mysterious and Unnamed New Trilogy I Can't Tell You About Yet Because Spoilers. Suffice to say I'll be spilling the beans in October, it's something I've been laying groundwork for quite some time on, it's an epic three-part adventure I'm super-excited to share with you, and it's connected in some way to all of my previous series.

Yes, all of them.

That's it for now, take care, be safe, and don't believe anything you read on the Internet today (except for this).

Even More Audio! Terms of Surrender is Live!

It's a heck of a week for audio! Coming fast on the last release's heels, book three of the Revanche Cycle, Terms of Surrender, is now available on audible.com. It's read by the incomparable Susannah Jones who, as usual, knocks it right out of the park with a top-notch performance.

The White Gold Score is Here -- on Audio!

Well, that was absurdly fast. Normally it takes about a month for Audible to release a book once it's gotten final approval, due to their extensive quality-control checks. Apparently we caught 'em at a good time, because just a couple of days post-approval, Adam Verner's reading of The White Gold Score is live!

It's a novella, so it only runs a little over five hours -- but that's still five hours of Adam's always-on-point narration. Just a little something to smooth the wait for The Castle Doctrine this Halloween...

Happy First of Spring!

I started working around dawn this morning, drinking my coffee under an overcast, stormy sky. Then, in the space of maybe twenty minutes, the clouds drifted off and in came the sunshine. Despite all the darkness in my books I'm pretty much fueled by mornings and sunlight (and caffeine), so nothing picks me up faster than a house flooded with the morning sun.

It's the first day of spring, and for me, that's all about possibilities. There's a whole warm spring ahead, then summer, and the colors of autumn, months of potential just waiting to be turned into something great. I hope you're making plans of your own, and reaching for new goals. Now's the best time to do it!

Work on The Castle Doctrine is well underway, and so far, I'm feeling good about it. Faust is back in Vegas, there's trouble on the doorstep, and the whole crew is back together again. (Including visits from a few Chicago friends, the return of Nicky and the Twins, and a brief cameo by a certain character from Harmony Black...)

Of course, the second Harmony book is on track to launch at the end of April, and the final Revanche Cycle novel, The Queen of the Night, is in my editor's ever-capable hands and aiming for a July launch. And I've just approved the audiobook versions of The White Gold Score and Terms of Surrender, so those should be coming out in another month or so. Lots of fun stuff coming down the pipeline, and I can't wait to share it with you. Happy Spring, everybody!

On International Women's Day

I don’t write message fiction. As a wiser man than I once said, if you want to write a message, send a telegram. This has been attributed to Mark Twain, but every single smart thing ever said has been attributed, at one time or another, to Mark Twain. Him or Abraham Lincoln. Pick one.

That said, every writer’s core values find a way into their work. That’s because – if you’re a good writer – you gravitate toward themes that are important to you. They shouldn’t be front and center, whacking the reader over the head or preaching, not if the writer is any good, but they still exist. Quietly nesting in the background, making their presence known with a confident whisper.

Today is International Women’s Day. There’s a perception in some quarters that the battle for equality is over, that it’s been won, that there’s nothing to talk about. But legal equality doesn’t change the fact that this game is rigged. It doesn’t change the fact that an assertive man is called an alpha-male go-getter, someone to be praised and emulated, while an assertive woman is called a bitch. Male entrepreneurs are interviewed about their achievements; female entrepreneurs are asked how they can possibly juggle their work with raising a family (because raising a family, of course, isn't a man’s job).

Little girls are still told that when a boy hits them, it’s because he likes her. We normalize that shit.  And for a man, little is considered more degrading than insinuating he does anything “like a girl.” These are signs of a toxic undercurrent, a set of cultural assumptions ingrained in men and women from childhood and designed to keep women in their place.

And here’s some evidence: want to know why I hesitated to write this today? You’re on the internet. Go to the comments section anywhere a woman asserts herself or stands up for feminism, and check out the torrent of bile flung her way by anonymous cretins. Actually, you probably don’t have to look, because you’ve probably seen it before. Maybe it’s even happened to you. Just by writing these words, I’m taking the risk of putting a target on my back. But that’s okay, see, because I’m a man. The worst thing that can happen, when I speak my mind, is that I draw verbal abuse from assholes. I won’t be raped or killed for typing words on the page.

And as long as any woman does face that threat, silence would make me complicit. I’m a writer. Words are all I’ve got.

Without women, I wouldn’t be here. And I don’t mean that in the obvious biological sense. Women taught me to read and fostered my early love of books. Women guided my exploration of the world, steered me towards great art and great storytellers and great ideas, helping to create the man I am today. When I despaired in my early days as a writer, thinking I’d never get anywhere, it was a woman who told me: keep going. I believe in you.

So thank you, thank you all, you who have been so instrumental in my life and you who have shaped the world for the better. Thank you for your strength, and your insight, and your patience (god, most of all your patience).

Keep going. I believe in you.