Progress and Update on New Rising Dawn Saga Novel

Had a great meeting with my editor on the Rising Dawn Saga, Amanda DeBord, regarding the upcoming 4th installment in the series.  I am happy to say that she really likes the balance and pacing with the various character threads in this one.  That was something I really focused on, as there is a lot of action and many big revelations, twists, and turns in this book.  I wanted to keep a good solid pace with moments of high-octane action and some reflective passages that offer fertile ground for character growth.

We are going to have a busy November as I make the final tweaks to the manuscript and send them back to Amanda to look over.  I should also be starting on the artwork side of things with Matthew Perry in about a week.

The book itself, page-count wise, is going to be the largest yet, but I think readers are going to find it the fastest paced and simply loaded with content that really advances the plot and grows the characters.  In a way, I hope it makes up for the slightly longer time period between this book and the last.

For those who have read the short stories Temples Rising and the recently-released Desert War, expect a "connect the dots" moment in the new book that brings both short stories and the novel into a continuum of sorts.  I think readers of the short stories and novels will really love this, and those who haven't read the short stories will be able to get a whole lot more background on something major that occurs in this novel.

It is definitely going to be great to get a novel out after the recent flurry of short fiction, with Hellscapes, Volume 1, Chronicles of Ave, Volume 1, and the short stories that appear in the anthologies Thunder on the Battlefield: Sword, Vampires Don't Sparkle, and the latest Harvey/Solomon tale Gift of Light in Dreams of Steam III: Gadgets.  Quite a trove of tales, to be sure, but having a novel release once more is something I'm looking forward to and I'm doing everything I can to make this one the best yet, in all aspects, including the writing itself, as well as plot and character development.

This novel is also the hardest-hitting yet, in my opinion, regarding the struggle between freedom and tyranny.  It looks a little farther down the line than where our world is at right now, but definitely illustrates the dangers that a soft tyranny can evolve into.

All in all, it was a very productive meeting, setting the course for a very focused November to bring this all to the finish line.  Stay tuned for more updates!  I'll be keeping everyone posted as we get nearer to what I hope is a release close to Christmas.