Dom's book is coming along and growing beyond it's original design. This is both a good thing, and a bad thing. Clearly, it's bad because that means it isn't coming out when I had originally wanted it to. On the other hand, it'll be a more complete piece with more content that what was expected. I use the word content, rather than pages, for a reason. This book is not dialogue heavy like the Chronicles of M books, so the word count will be closer to books 3, or 4 of the series, but it'll be contained in less pages. Dialogue just takes up more page space.

Because it's taking longer, it's given me some opportunities that I wouldn't normally have. For example, Kristofor Harris (I'll post a FB link to him below) will be designing the cover for me based on his reading of the book. He does some fantastic work, so I'm sure what he comes up with will be glorious. I've also had a moment to decide what to write next.

Chronicles of M will be getting a seventh book. This, of course, will follow the story where I left it in The Purge (no, not the movies), but this time around I'm going to write it as a beginning point for new people to the story. For one, it's time to give another starting point and turn the previous plot into backstory. Secondly, this is going to be semi-high fantasy in its scope, so....what happens in modern day, stays in modern day? I saw semi-high fantasy because it won't just be elves, magic, dwarves and all the usual high-fantasy stuff, but there will be other elements in play that should play well with the theme, but I really have no idea if it declassifies the book as high fantasy. Don't know, don't care. It'll be a very fun, action packed story, and that's all I really care about.

After that, unless something else comes to mind, I'll probably add in another Death Squad book. Since this is at least a year out I haven't put any real thought into it, so who know's what direction it'll take. I may decide to postpone it for another Hitori book, but we shall see.

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I wish I had more news than I do, but it's been a rough month. Between trying to prepare for our journey back to Kansas City at the end of July, my son's various activities, illness, and an assortment of other reasons, there hasn't been much of an advancement on Dom's book. However, since I won't be able to afford the editing until after the Kansas City Comic Con ( http://www.kansascity-comiccon.com/ ) in mid August I have plenty of time to finish this up.

There's also two major challenges with this book that are equally fantastic, and downright annoying. One is the vocabulary. I generally don't get too graphic, gory, or otherwise descriptive about attacks in my other books. They are action/mystery/fantasy pieces, not horror. So, where I would normally type like a madman, I'm having to stop and consider every word. Fun, but stressful and slow going.

The other hurdle I'm facing is information gathering. Unlike the rest of the books in the CoM universe, this book takes place over a huge span of time and a lot of that history is not easy to find. Specifics on the Germanic tribes during the 300's AD is a good example. The tribes who were still dealing with Rome, not the ones who moved into France. It does make a difference.

Technically, I should have made this into a series of its own, but I didn't think itwas the best option. Classic horror novels rarely have sequels. Their movie counterparts tend to and they are almost always worse than the original. A lot of times, it's not the acting, or the plot that kills a horror sequel, it's repetition. You can only watch the same guy chase the same girl so many times through a forest before you just don't care any more. That right there is what I'm afraid of doing with a horror series and why this is a solitary book. Dom ripping people to shreds is going to be jaw dropping badassary, but only for a while.