Good morning, everybody! I’m pleased to announce that the audiobook version of Detonation Boulevard, narrated by Susannah Jones, is available now! Susannah knocked her performance out of the park (like always), and I think it came out great.
Bring the Fire, the final book in the Wisdom’s Grave Trilogy, has been in my editor’s hands for a few weeks now and we’re hammering it into shape. I’m hoping to have it out in time for Halloween because…well, really, do I need a reason? Because Halloween is awesome, that’s why. No promises just yet, the manuscript needs a lot of work between here and there, but we’ll do our best.
Writing Bring the Fire was a bittersweet and purgative experience. After writing four series and over a dozen books all set in one connected universe, with lore and setting piling on and piling on, it was time to make a change. Time to pare some of it back and — just like Nessa sets out to do — burn some of it down. Not everybody makes it out of the story alive, and I had to write the final scenes for some people who have lived in my head for years. Not easy, but necessary.
Also, I’m showing you my cards this time. No new mysteries. Just answers. Want to know exactly what the Kings of Man really are? You’re going to find out. Want to know what happened to the creator of the universe, and why there seems to be a hell but no heaven (or for that matter, why there are hundreds of parallel worlds but only people from Daniel Faust’s earth seem to end up in hell)? I’m going to straight-up tell you, and reveal some secrets I’ve been keeping since I wrote The Long Way Down. So that’s happening.
Meanwhile, work is well underway on the next Harmony Black novel. I don’t even have a title to share yet (the working title is Found Footage, but that’s almost certainly going to change), and since the series is now totally in my hands after my publisher decided not to continue it, I’m trying to come at it with a fresh eye. The aim is to make book five an “on-ramp” for new readers, continuing the story while making it accessible for folks to just jump right in.
Part of that is getting back to basics. The biggest complaint about the later Harmony books was that the metaplot was getting seriously overstuffed, as I tried to give the series its own identity while also keeping it tied to the Faust novels. As a result, there was just so much stuff going on. We had the courts of hell, the Network, Bobby Diehl, Bobby and Nadine maybe teaming up to back Senator Roth, the whole metaplot about the real purpose behind Vigilant Lock…it was a LOT.
Obviously not going to spoil anything, but Bring the Fire is going to shuffle the board, change things up, and take a few pieces off the table. The next Harmony book begins with a time jump, picking up around six months after Cold Spectrum ended, and I’m aiming to go lean and mean with this one. It’s just Harmony and Jessie, one creepy mystery to solve, and a whole lot of dead bodies.
(And of course, I haven’t forgotten the angle I set up in the epilogue to Cold Spectrum. Bobby Diehl is in hiding, his financial empire in ruins, but he’s still dangerous as a cornered rat — and Team Evil has had six months to plot their big comeback.)
Okay, that’s enough chatter from me, I should get back to work. Have a great weekend, everybody!