I confess...it's been awhile. All of which proves that being a teacher is more than just being about teaching. Then I look at my blog counter and I realize I haven't said anything in some time. But that doesn't mean I don't have anything to say now.
The big news is that I'm polishing off three items for the near future, two in the Cameron Ballack Mystery series and the next installment in the Merivalkan Chronicles!
First, years ago when I wrote the fourth book in the Ballack series, I got 40 percent of the way through the original tale and hated it. It wasn't just an "this isn't ideal" feeling about the work; I literally hated it. The storyline was destroying Ballack's character and I would have been embarrassed to take it public. So I deleted everything and started over. The resulting tale was much better: a series of murders taking place at an Episcopal nursing home in Webster Groves (an inner-ring suburb of St. Louis). Now while it's much better than my original fifty-foot high pile of steaming monkey garbage, the scope of it has more the feel of a transitional tale. That is, this is a story that passes the baton from A Shattered Peace to the (officially) fifth book in the series, which is the subject of my next paragraph. And as such, I'm going into uncharted waters to push momentum toward that later volume: I will be releasing the transitional story, titled Cry From the Grave, as a serial novel on this blog for interested readers! Stay tuned for the release date of the initial chapters!
That will lead to the next (as yet unpublished) novel for our favorite wheelchair-bound detective. We've had murder at an Orthodox seminary, a Catholic cathedral, a non-denominational counseling center, but the circle now widens beyond the Christian tradition. An apparent conflict between Jewish and Muslim communities explodes when a car bomb annihilates a Bosnian man hours before the body of a Jewish businessman is found in a dumpster a few hundred yards away. Ballack has to marshall his team through ethnic and religious contention to find out who is responsible for the butchery. Can he find the murderer before the feds arrive on the scene? Can he avoid a fiery demise himself? Well, that's why I'm working on the final touches for The Burning Glow and sometime during 2019, I'll be talking to my publisher about that.
And speaking of new works, thank you to all who have given kind words regarding the new Merivalkan Chronicles which received its start with my first volume in said series, Joël. Now I want everyone to be aware that I've finished the rough draft of the second installment of the Merivalkan Chronicles. Whereas Joel creatively re-told the story of Christ's incarnation and redemption, the story of Bjarna heralds a time of reform coming hundreds of years after the tale of the first story. Yes, it's an allegory of sorts of the Protestant Reformation, and I'm looking forward to this becoming a reality.
So, as you can see, I've been busy. Serial novel coming to this blog, and two more in the wings. 2019 is shaping up to be quite the literary year.
