I haven’t posted anything since the middle of December, but I promise my reasons are excellent. Well, perhaps acceptable. Okay…just shy of questionable.

Late December, as always, is a crazy time, and I spent much of it in Washington, D.C. and Long Island, New York visiting friends and family over the holidays. As for January, my only excuse is that I’ve been writing. A lot.

And it has paid off. I am happy to announce that the first draft of book two in the William Whitehall series is complete! It took me just under five months to write 113,000 words, but that will likely increase as I go back and add sub-plots that occurred to me along the way. It’s nearly impossible for me to write without generating new ideas, and some of these are just begging to be woven into the story. Don’t worry though–I won’t inflate it too much. I simply want to make sure there’s enough action and intrigue to keep things entertaining.

I don’t want to give away too much, but it’s fair to say William’s life has changed since book one. How could it not? In the opening of book two, we find that William was promoted to the nobility and given a barony of farms to oversee—but someone is sabotaging his efforts. As he struggles to avoid ruin, he becomes entangled in the largest crime in the history of Esper, one that threatens the livelihood of nearly everyone in Azuria. He solicits help from the dragons, as well as his old friends, but it’s not enough. Before it’s over, he will have to put his life on the line, or allow the unthinkable to happen.

My working title so far is “Book Two”. Thrilling, right? But I’m thinking of duplicating the pattern of the first book’s title with something along the lines of “The Hero of Faywater Bay”. Let me know what you think!

If you want to get a sneak preview, your chance is coming up in a few weeks. I’ll be writing another post with an invitation to join my beta-readers group. I’m looking for a few hard-core fans who are willing to read an unpolished version and give me their feedback. So if you’re interested, keep watching for future posts! Who knows…you may end up suggesting something that changes William’s life again!

Happy Reading!