The Neon Boneyard: Now in Audio!

Hey, everybody -- it's finally here! The audiobook version of The Neon Boneyard is live and for sale on Audible now. (And I do mean "finally," it was finished almost a month ago. Audible's gone back to approving books verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry slowly again, something I'll have to take into account in future. Sorry to keep you waiting!)

Meanwhile, I've just come back from a weekend trip to NYC, for field research on an upcoming book and to see the first staged reading of the new musical Bisland & Bly, from my friends in the Sycamore Theatre Co. -- lemme tell ya, folks, this play is going to be big. And as always, spending time with artists making great art leaves me feeling super-charged and ready to up my game.

I'm in the homecoming stretch of the first draft of Detonation Boulevard, dropping plot bombs and bringing back some old familiar faces. And I'm nowhere near quitting time, so I'd better get off social media and back to my word processor. Talk to you soon!

Good morning, all! Just a quick note to let you know that the new Daniel Faust novel, The Neon Boneyard, is now available. You can grab it in e-book or paperback on Amazon, and the audio version will be coming in a few weeks (as Adam Verner, our narrator, is in high demand as always).

This book marks a few fun milestones. It's the first novel I've ever had to finalize in the middle of a cross-country move (an experience I wouldn't recommend to anyone), and the first time I've felt the need to apologize to my editor in advance, for making her read one particular scene. You'll know it when you get there.

I'm never sure what else to say in these announcement posts; I could go on and on, but I'll let the story speak for itself. It's a wild and bloody romp through the Vegas underworld, as Faust's biggest foes join forces and our antihero has to do some serious contemplation of his choices in life -- while attending the worst party ever. I hope you enjoy it! Now I'm getting back to work on Detonation Boulevard, the second novel in the Wisdom's Grave trilogy. We're still aiming to release it by the end of this year, assuming I can do that and find the time to unpack all these boxes...

The Neon Boneyard: Cover Reveal!

We're one week away from the release of The Neon Boneyard, the next novel in the Daniel Faust series. Sounds like a good day for a cover reveal! Editing and layout are done, so we've got a green light to launch in e-book and paperback formats next Tuesday, the tenth. Adam Verner's a little booked up at the moment, so he'll be recording the audiobook version early next month and we'll get it out as soon as we can. And here's the official blurb:

"Daniel Faust has clawed his way from the gutter to a penthouse suite, carving a bloody swath across the Las Vegas underworld. He's buried his enemies and more than a few friends along the way. If there's one thing a modern-day sorcerer knows for certain, though, it's that the past never stays buried forever.

"Now he's running on ice, juggling his responsibilities as a mob boss with his dubious "gift" of a knighthood in the courts of hell, defending territory in two worlds at once. It's a bad time for unfinished business to come back and haunt him, forcing him to confront his tortured history and the family he left behind. An even worse time for his surviving foes to join forces and take deadly aim at Faust's throne.

"Toss in a syndicate operative from a parallel world, a deranged half-demon assassin hungry for a duel, and the shadowy machinations of the King of Worms, and the stage is set for a showdown under the neon lights of Vegas. Vultures are circling, and only the magician with the quickest wits -- and the fastest trigger-finger -- will survive."

Oh, and I've heard the requests; starting with The Neon Boneyard, from now on each novel will have a brief "the story so far" recap at the beginning, in case you haven't picked up the series in a while or for people diving in mid-series. I'm still working on a new master timeline/reading order for the website, hopefully I'll get to it shortly after the million things I've gotta handle between now and next Tuesday's launch. (For the record, though, The Neon Boneyard begins shortly after the events of Double or Nothing -- right after Halloween -- and a few months before the Wisdom's Grave trilogy.)

And that's all I've got to say for now! Be safe, have fun, and I'll catch you on Tuesday.

Sworn to the Night: Now on Audio!

Hey, everybody! Well, I made it to North Carolina. My furniture hasn't, yet, and won't be here until Saturday, but otherwise I'm loving the new place. And most importantly, I'm back to work. The endless distractions of the house sale and move are finally over (except for the furniture thing), and I'm finding my stride again. Also, the new place has twelve-foot ceilings and acoustics that do amazing things with the clacking of my mechanical keyboard. I'm easily amused.

Beyond that, I'm thrilled to announce that the audiobook version of Sworn to the Night, narrated by the fantastic Susannah Jones, has finally been approved by Audible and is available for sale. I'm so happy with how this turned out, and I hope my audiobook fans will be as thrilled as I am!

Meanwhile, my editor should be done with the manuscript for The Neon Boneyard in another week or so, and I'm ready to raft through an ocean of red text. Editing is never fun, but always worth it in the end.

Looking Forward

Well, I’m three days from my move to North Carolina. My computer is propped up on a box. I’m sitting on a box. The house is boxes. Last month I had an amazing, revitalizing trip to New York, attending an artists’ salon held by the Sycamore Theatre Company, and it left me itching to create big things…which is hard, when your house is boxes. There comes a point, preparing for a cross-country move, when even the simple day-to-day business of life demands ridiculous mental exertion. Total burnout.

But it’s almost over, and soon I’ll be ensconced in my new WriterNest. Let’s talk about some short-term business first: The Neon Boneyard has an official release date, April 10. I’ll try to get a pre-order page up around the first of the month, once we’re closer to finished with the editing. Adam Verner is on board for the audiobook version, and he’ll be recording in early May. Speaking of audiobooks, I’ve finished reviewing the files for the audio version of Sworn to the Night and it’s fantastic. I mean, the words are okay, but Susannah Jones’s narration is fantastic. That’s currently under review at Audible, so it could launch any time between tonight and next week (we never really know how long it’ll take). I’ll put up an announcement when it goes live. And after that?

Wisdom’s Grave
My next project is writing the second and third books of the Wisdom’s Grave trilogy, back to back. I’m currently working my way through the first draft for book two, Detonation Boulevard – in fact, when I head for my new home on Monday, I’m rerouting some of the trip to take me to a few key places from the outline so I can research them first-hand. Possibly some scary places. Let’s hope I don’t get murdered! I don’t have a firm ETA on either book yet, but those will almost certainly be my next two releases after Neon Boneyard. Once the trilogy is wrapped up, we’ll be looking to the future…

New Stuff
As I mentioned last update, in 2019, 47North will be publishing my novel Haunted Palaces. This isn’t a new series; it’s a big brick of a book, and a one-and-done, self-contained story. It’s also not connected to the Faust-universe novels. Writing this thing was a tremendous experience, both from the perspective of trying something risky and new, and creating a one-shot story that wraps up clean in a single book. I’ll be sharing some thoughts about that, down the pike, once I’ve finished processing them.

And you know me, I’ve always got to be trying new things in the hopes of improving my craft. I can now announce that I’ve signed a contract with Thomas and Mercer Publishing for a brand new series that will also be kicking off in 2019. All I can tell you right now is that it’s a crime-thriller series with no fantasy elements, existing in its own continuity. I’m really excited to see how it’ll be received, and where we can go from here; I love weaving fantasy and horror elements in my work, but I grew up reading Elmore Leonard and Lawrence Block, so it’s been a heck of a thrill to finally work in their wheelhouse.

(Before anyone panics, that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop writing fantasy, but I’ll be stretching my wings as a thriller author as well. As the meme says, get you a writer who can do both. That’s what the meme says, right?)

Harmony Black
47North has canceled the Harmony Black series. Long story short, many publishers base a series on preorders even more than live sales, and fewer people were preordering each new installment. They still sell great, as far as I’m concerned – but for me, “great” means my rent is paid, so there’s a certain difference of scale involved. This isn’t the end of my relationship with them (like I said above, they’re backing Haunted Palaces, and we’re talking about some other projects). It is also not the end of Harmony.

Way back when, I made a promise to you all: I never start a story without finishing it. I know it’s popular to say writers don’t “owe” their readers anything, and I don’t have any beef with people who feel that way, but for me, it’s not true. If I start a story, I do owe you an ending. And because my publishers are awesome people, I can make that happen. I’ve got the green light to take the series over and self-publish the continuation. They’ll still own and publish the first four volumes, and anything after that is in my hands.

So here’s the bottom line: I am committing, here and now, to writing three more books in the Harmony Black series and paying for it out of my own pocket. I’m early in outlining, but the plan is that they’ll form a trilogy of sorts, culminating in what I hope will be a satisfying conclusion. Will there be anything after that? Right now, I can’t say – my crystal ball doesn’t stretch that far. But there will be at least three more books, with a big finish. Because of the changeover, I want you to be aware of a few things up front.

1. The Covers Will Change
The first four Harmony covers were done in-house by my publisher, so I’m on my own there. I’m hoping James Egan, the fantastic artist who does the Faust and Wisdom’s Grave covers, will be on board for the project, and we’ll come up with something super-cool. They’re going to look different, though, and if you collect the paperbacks, the spines won’t look the same. (I will make sure the paperbacks are printed in the exact same size as the current ones, though, so they’ll at least line up neatly on a shelf).

2. The Audio Will Change
Like the art, the audiobook narrator’s deal was with the publisher, not with me (and there are some middlemen involved, it’s all complicated inside-baseball stuff). Bottom line is – and I apologize, I know how many audiobook fans hate when this happens – we’ll be switching narrators. I’ve asked Susannah Jones to step up and take the wheel; given her amazing work on the Revanche Cycle and Wisdom’s Grave adaptations, I’m confident she’s going to do an incredible job. All I ask is that you give her a chance, and I think you’ll really be pleased.

3. The Story Will Change – A Little Bit
File this under “maybe.” Now that I have 100% control over the franchise, I’m looking at the first four books and doing a post-mortem of what I did right, what I did wrong, what I wanted to do but couldn’t, what I was asked to do by the publisher, and so on. I’m mulling some changes to really make these follow-ups fire on all cylinders.

(Remember Casino Royale? It didn’t redefine the basic concept of what made a James Bond movie tick, but the shifts in tone and portrayal made it a dramatically different kind of movie from, say, Moonraker. I want to Casino Royale this series a little.)

One thing I’m contemplating is a shift from first to third person. There are a few reasons for that. For one, I think I can do a better job portraying Harmony herself from outside her head. She’s not neurotypical, and my attempts at capturing that from inside her own thoughts have been…eh, clumsy, by my estimation, though I’ve got a better grip on who she is now. Thought it may seem counter-intuitive, I suspect I can get you closer to her from a small distance.

Secondly, it’s due to the structure of the series. The Faust books are first-person because I’m mining the traditions of pulp fiction and noir detective novels (just don’t call Daniel a ‘magic detective’, he hates that). Back in 2015 I made the choice to write the Harmony series the same way, since it’s a companion series set in the same world….and that was a mistake. What I didn’t realize at the time was that the Harmony series is drawing more from technothrillers and spy novels, and first-person wasn’t the right tool for the job.

Basically, tying the entire story to Harmony’s perspective, when she’s part of an entire team of specialists, was like writing with handcuffs on. Can I split Harmony and Jessie up as part of a mission? Nope, not unless I want to cut out whatever Jessie is up to. And that’s to say nothing of bringing April and Kevin into the field simply because otherwise they’d only appear on the other end of phone conversations.

With a third-person perspective, I can move the camera around. I can show you the cool science stuff April and Kevin are doing back at base, without pulling them into the line of fire for arbitrary reasons (one of the biggest complaints I get about the series). I can send Harmony and Jessie on a high-stakes operation where they have to momentarily split up or cover each other from a distance. I can zoom in on the bad guys now and then, outside of the usual prologue/epilogue bits, and capture more of the world. I can even show you what the team members are up to when they’re not on the job.

So that’s a little of what I’m thinking about. Trying some things, taking some risks, aiming to tell better stories. The real bottom-line takeaway from this is that there will be more Harmony books, and I’m going to do my best to kick it up a notch.

Okay, that’s enough from me, I’m going to go and find some dinner because my fridge has been cleaned out and everything in my kitchen is taped up in boxes. My house is boxes, did I mention that?

State of the Schaefer, February 2018

Hey there, friends! We’re snug in the quiet spot between book releases, so I figured it was time for a general “State of the Schaefer” update. Maybe I should say “states,” since most of my time these last couple of months has been taken up with trying to move. I put my house on the market, aiming to relocate from Illinois to North Carolina. A number of my friends live out there, plus it puts me a short/cheap flight from my friends in NYC, so win-win.

Unfortunately, my productivity (and my blood pressure) has taken a beating in the process. Moving has been described as one of the most stressful events we can undergo, and I believe it. Beyond living out of packing boxes, nothing kills workflow like being immersed in writing a big scene only to find out that a realtor is coming to show the house and I have to clear out in fifteen minutes. Then coming home, getting back to work, and having to do it again twenty minutes later.

The process leaves an emotional residue, this continual uncertainty that leaves me feeling rootless, restless. Getting anything done requires constant effort, and mental exertion feels like rolling a boulder uphill. That said, I’m plugging away. There’s light at the end of the tunnel: the house has a buyer, it’s passed inspection and legal review, and if nothing goes haywire between now and then, the closing is on March 19th. Later this week I’m flying out to hunt for an apartment, and after that I’m winging up to New York for a mini-vacation and a salon being held by the amazing talents behind the Sycamore Theatre Company. (Yes, I’ve made an executive decision to take a couple of days off and relax – it’s a shock, I know.)

Fortunately, the manuscript for The Neon Boneyard is already finished, so it was immune to any moving-stress-induced delays. It’s still in editing, and I think we’re looking good for an April release. This is going to be a fun one. As the Man with the Cheshire Smile and the Network forge a (very) unstable truce, they turn to some out-of-town help to deal with their Vegas problem. And by “out of town,” I mean “from a parallel Earth.” Not one of the nice, friendly ones, either. As for Daniel, he’s been challenged to hunt down one of his most dangerous enemies…and save her life. Come April, things are going to be weird all over.

I’ve been talking with 47North Publishing about the future of the Harmony Black series, and I’ve got some news to share in the near future (this is going to demand a lengthy post of its own, it’s a long story) – I’ll try to bring you up to speed next month, ideally with info about the next book. In the meantime, we’ve signed a contract for an epic contemporary fantasy that’ll be out either very late this year or in 2019. It’s called Haunted Palaces, and it’s not quite like anything I’ve done before. It’s kind of this giant love letter to New York City, gothic romance literature, Hekate, and romantic comedies. I’m incredibly thankful that they’re taking a chance on publishing it.

On that note, feedback on Sworn to the Night is still coming in strong, and I’m so grateful that so many of you are enjoying it! We were hoping to have the audiobook version out by now, but Susannah came down with a cold and, well, you can’t get around that. I can write sick, but nobody can (or should) narrate sick. Her amazing voice is getting back into full health, and we’re hoping to have the audio ready by early March. I promise, it’ll be worth the wait.

And on my end, I’m currently working (slowly, under the circumstances, but doing my best) on the first draft of Detonation Boulevard, the sequel to Sworn to the Night. Our antiheroines are somewhere between Jersey City and Chicago at the moment and driving fast through the night. Then again, if you saw what was chasing them, you’d drive fast too.

That’s the update! There’s a big, exciting year ahead, and I can’t wait to share it all with you.

A Word of Thanks

This book almost didn't come out.

It was a long road to the creation of Sworn to the Night, and what held me back more than anything was that old familiar companion of doubt. As a writer, I want to take chances, to push my boundaries, to create new and exciting things for you; as a businessperson, on the other hand, I know that the path to financial reward is marked by the stale and familiar. The last time I took a big artistic risk was the Revanche Cycle, which remains my lowest-selling, least-known series.

But you know me, that's not enough to stop me. Even when I could play it safe, I generally don't, which is why the Daniel Faust series has become less about magical powers and fighting monsters and leveling up, and more about a man finding his place in the world. From the feedback I've been getting on the last few books, that wasn't the safe choice, but it was the right one. Not every book I write is a hit, but this is a journey, you know? I'm still figuring this stuff out.

So, Sworn. I knew from the moment I started outlining that it would be a step outside my wheelhouse and outside my comfort zone. I was going to have to take a lot of risks and put my heart on the chopping block. When I shopped it around to a few publishers, the feedback largely boiled down to "we can't sell this." It's a book that involves a romance, but you're told on page two that there's no guarantee of a happily-ever-after (and also, the presumed-missing heroines just might have hunted down and murdered God, for reasons unknown). It's a book involving a dominant/submissive relationship, but it's not erotica. It's a dark contemporary fantasy almost guaranteed to disappoint someone hoping for a "good guys battle monsters while making snarky quips" urban-fantasy romp (i.e., exactly what sells right now). One of the women we're supposed to be rooting for is...to avoid spoilers, let's just use her preferred nomenclature, "lovably quirky."

It's a complicated salad of a story.

But real artists take chances. So last week I took a deep breath, hit the button, and unleashed Sworn to the Night upon the world. And you know what? One week later...it's arguably the best-received book I've ever written. As I write this, it's sitting at #3 in LGBT fantasy, has a plethora of five-star reviews, it's at an unprecedented (for me) 4.70 on Goodreads (my previous best-rated book, the Faust novel Double or Nothing, is 4.40), and readers seem to really dig it.

So thank you. Thank you for showing me that I can take chances. Heck, thanks for showing me I need to take chances, because when I have the courage to dig deep and paint these shadows on the page, you're willing to join me in the dance. It's gratifying and wonderful and makes my heart swell. Again, thank you.

You've also shown me that I need to knock the next two books in this trilogy out of the freakin' park. I mean, these things have to be printed on gold plates, to live up to book one. That's a tall order. But in times like this, I look to my spirit-guide Barney Stinson, and echo his timeless words of wisdom: "Challenge accepted."

Is it early, or late? Both?

Well, it was supposed to come out on Monday, then it was rescheduled for Friday, so of course we ended up splitting the difference: Sworn to the Night, the first book of the Wisdom’s Grave Trilogy, is out right now. The e-book version is live, the paperback version is being processed now and should be available within a day or so (if it’s not already up), and Susannah Jones is booking studio time at the end of the month for the audiobook adaptation so we’re hoping to have that available around mid-February.

I’ll be honest, I’ve never been this nervous about a book launch before. I’m trying to do something new with this trilogy, to stretch my wings, hone my writing style and improve my art. Sworn to the Night is the longest book I’ve ever written and easily the darkest; please don’t go in expecting a light, snarky urban-fantasy romp. More than that, though… you know how, on some cooking-competition shows, contestants always say, “This dish is me on a plate?” This trilogy is me on a page. I’ve had to take myself to some very vulnerable places, writing this thing – had to allow myself to BE vulnerable, exposed in the words – though of course I don’t even know if any of that will come across on a reader’s end. Maybe it’s all in my head. We’ll see.

So I’m nervous but doing it anyway. Which is how many of the best things in life begin.

In other news, we’re working hard on the next Daniel Faust novel, the Neon Boneyard, which is still on track for release sometime in April. The manuscript is all done, and we’re just beginning the editing and cover design process. I’ll have an announcement with some details about the next book in the Harmony Black series in a couple of months, most likely, but it’s too early to talk about a release date.

And with that, I’m back to work.

Friday. We're doing this.

Happy new year, everyone! Here's hoping that 2018 is filled with delight for you and yours, and at the very least a marked improvement over 2017. We can make this happen. And speaking of making things happen, the final edits for Sworn to the Night are in my hands and my one and only new year's resolution is to get this book out this coming Friday, January the fifth. It's a timeline one might generously call...a bit on the tight/stressful side? But I'm going to get this done.

While I go and dive into a lake of red ink, working through about a million edits, I figured it'd be a good time for an official cover reveal! And with it, though I'm still tweaking it some, here's the more or less official blurb:

"Marie Reinhart is an NYPD detective on the trail of a serial killer. When she sleeps, though, she dreams of other lives; she dreams of being a knight, in strange wars and strange worlds. On the other side of the city, Nessa Roth is a college professor trapped in a loveless marriage, an unwilling prop in a political dynasty. She's also a fledgling witch, weaving poppets and tiny spells behind closed doors.

When Marie's case draws her into Nessa's path, sparks fly. What comes next is more than a furtive whirlwind affair; it's the first pebbles of an avalanche. Nessa and Marie are the victims of a curse that has pursued them across countless lifetimes; a doom designed to trap them in a twisted living fairy tale, with their romance fated to end in misery and death. 

They aren't going out without a fight. As they race to uncover the truth, forces are in motion across the country. In Las Vegas, a professional thief is sent on a deadly heist. In a Detroit back alley, witches gather under the guidance of a mysterious woman in red. Just outside New York, an abandoned zoo becomes the hunting-ground for servants of a savage and alien king. The occult underground is taking sides and forming lines of battle. Time is running out, and Nessa and Marie have one chance to save themselves, break the curse, and demand justice.

This time, they're writing their own ending."

One More Week

Good morning, everybody. It pains me to do this, but Sworn to the Night has to be delayed -- just one week, though. Now we're looking at releasing it somewhere between Friday, January 5th, and Monday the 8th. The exact dates are still up in the air, so I don't want to give anything firmer than that until we're 100% certain.

Long story short, a member of my team had some unavoidable life-getting-in-the-way issues, as happens to all of us once in a while, and as a result the manuscript is still in editing. Not going into details because I'm the captain of this particular ship and any delays are my responsibility. I was really looking forward to sharing this new adventure with you on New Year's Day, and I'm sorry it's not going to happen, but we're almost there. I promise, it'll be worth the wait.

The e-book version will be out first, with the paperback available on the same day or within a day or two of release. The audio version will be delayed further (since Susannah can't start recording until the finished book is in her hands), but hopefully we'll start rolling on that shortly. And I'll be taking this as a learning experience, refining my production flow and trying to ensure this doesn't happen again. Thanks for your patience, and as soon as the book is ready to go, I'll be shouting it from the rooftops. Or just, you know, writing a message about it. That's probably more efficient.