Hi everyone.  I know it’s been a while since my last post but I’ve been kind of busy.  Between work, the holidays, and writing my plate’s been full.  I have a minute to breathe, though, so I thought I’d bring you up to speed on what’s been happening.

The Inheritance is in the process of being edited (thank you Karen & Ed!) and I hope to be able to do a final polish draft this month or next.  I’d originally hoped to have it out by the end of January but I see now that that was a rather unrealistic expectation.  Hopefully it’ll be out this spring but that will depend on how much work the manuscript will need after editing.  Plus I still have to work with my cover artist.

My keyboard has been far from idle, though.  I’ve been working on my next novel, The Leviticus Enforcer, since the end of November and have completed twenty-four chapters.  This is only the first draft but ideally the whole novel will be done by the end of the year.  We’ll see.  This book is very different from The Inheritance.  It’s a crime thriller following the effort to stop a serial killer.  I’m having to do a lot of research for this one but I’m sure it will pay off. 

One of the more interesting aspects of writing these books has been the creation of the city where they take place.  I didn’t want to use Springfield because, frankly, it’s a bit small for my ideas.  I didn’t choose another city because I’m not really familiar enough with them to portray them accurately.  Creating Port Mason has worked very well mainly because I can do pretty much whatever I want in it.  I got the idea from one of my favorite novelists, Scott Turow (Presumed Innocent) who sets all his books in his fictional Kindle County.  I figured if he can do it, why can’t I?

I will keep everyone posted on the progress of these books.  Keep your eyes open for The Inheritance!  Thanks for all your support.