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!