Happy March, everybody! I’m just dropping by to deliver a progress update on all the stuff that’s cooking in the Schaefer Lab. It’s Sunday, I’m working all day, and this is how I spend my lunch break. Updates and ramen.
I’ve heard from my editor and I can now say we are confidently on track to have the next Daniel Faust adventure, Dig Two Graves, out next month (in time for my ten-year anniversary!) It still amazes me to think that I’ve been in this biz for a decade, come April. Feels like I’m just getting started.
While my editor is wielding her red pen with zero mercy, I’m deep in the thick of writing the next Harmony Black novel and the plan, if all goes smoothly, is to have it out by the end of this year. I can tell you that it picks up about a month after the events of Never Send Roses, and what seems like a simple mission suddenly spirals out of control, sending Harmony and Jessie on a desperate scramble from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Catskill Mountains. I’m finally in a position to tackle a particular plot thread that’s been dangling for a long time, and oh boy, is it going to pay off in this one. Let’s just say that some old enemies of the team have come together to weave a perfect trap…
On that note, I have to apologize to folks who are waiting for the audiobook version of Never Send Roses. The delay is 100% my fault, but it will happen. Long story short, audiobooks are incredibly expensive to produce (more than the costs of my editors and my cover artists put together.) Like most writers, I am not a wealthy person, and I just had to cover some huge unexpected bills so at this point in time, producing the audio version would push my bank account into the danger zone. I expect that’s going to change shortly, so as soon as the money’s freed up, I’ll be moving forward with production.
(There are production companies that foot the cost through revenue-sharing agreements, and they regularly court me, but they pick the narrator for you. Not my style. I’m admittedly a perfectionist and a bit of a diva when it comes to Team Schaefer: I like to hand-pick the people I work with, in order to make sure we’ve got compatible vibes and that they’re bringing what I need to the table. In other words, when it comes to audiobooks, I work with Adam Verner and Susannah Jones, period. Adam and Susannah are my ride-or-dies, and they will be for as long as they feel like putting up with my neurotic butt.)
Finally, I’m super-excited to announce that Daniel Faust is about to steal Germany thanks to my friends at Heyne Verlag. The German-language translation of The Long Way Down (retitled to Stadt der Damonen) will be out next week, on the 13th! Then the translated edition of Redemption Song (retitled to Sophias Geister) will be out on June 12th. Will there be more? As always in publishing, “if people buy them, yes. If not, no.” So, fingers crossed!
I might have one more lil’ surprise for you at the end of the year or early in the next one, but it’s too soon to do more than vaguepost about it. (No, it isn’t the sapphic dark erotic romance novel about the Illuminati that I occasionally semi-jokingly threaten to write.)
(But I will write it someday. Seriously, push me, see if I don’t.)
Okay, Harmony and Jessie are in a bind so I’ve gotta get back to work. Have a great week, and I’ll be back soon!