What are you currently working on?

The book giveaway contest I have been running had a very successful week. I asked participants to send me questions, and I had a lot of great responses come in. A couple of days ago I wrote a blog post to answer the first of many such questions (Do any of your characters end up different than you originally intended?)

Today, I am going to answer a simpler question that came in: “What are you currently working on?”

Short answer: Book Four of The Caein Legacy series.

Long answer: The Caein Legacy. I started writing this version of the series in 2019, but it was not the first attempt at telling this story. It was, I believe, the seventh version that was started, but it is the version that has proven itself to me and the select few readers that have had the opportunity to go through my manuscripts.

The Caein Legacy is told from the perspective of Andrew Caein, a half-human, half-dragon capable of assuming either form. He is the last of the dragon-kind, forced to hide what he is in order to survive. The story also features his three half-brothers; Alexander, who is a mage that has been forced into exile because his very existence is considered illegal and is punishable by death; Colin, heir to the throne, but who has no love for his siblings, and in fact, attempts to enforce the laws against both magi and dragon-kind to spite them; and Thomas, a scholar and historian who wants to do right, but finds himself caught between his three older brothers as their conflict escalates.

I have posted teasers for Exile and Guardian on my facebook page; click on the links to see a sneak peek of each. I will post another for Harbinger once I have my copyright certificate (I only submitted that work for copyright a few days ago, so it may be a few months before you see this excerpt posted).

I completed the writing of the first book, Exile, in 2019, and moved on to write the second book, Guardian. Since the infamous quarantine started, I finished writing Guardian and took a couple months to edit, rewrite and add some passages to polish it off. I then moved on to the writing of the third book, Harbinger, which I officially finished editing five days ago. I am currently writing the fourth book, which I do not yet have a title for.

Part of this project also involves the querying of agents. I intend to have the series published, and after the trouble I went through with my previous self-publisher, I’d rather not go through that ordeal again. I have no doubt that there are other outfits that will be more responsive and provide better customer service to their authors when orders are placed, but after having to cancel plans due to the non-responsive print-on-demand office and having numerous phone calls left unreturned, the route of self-publishing has left a very sour taste in my mouth. That being said, I won’t be taking the self-publishing route a second time. Though querying agents may take many months, I am hopeful that I can capture the attention of someone, and that one day The Caein Legacy will be available for all of you to read as well.

I have done more writing in the last year than I have in a very long time. Prior to completing Exile, it had been since 2010 that I had written anything to completion (Hunted). I had started many projects, only to set them each aside for one reason or another. I went through a long period of high stress during those years, and I have found that stress puts a severe damper on my creativity. The only way to find my creative spark once again was to remove the stress from my life, and even then, it took me more than two years before I began to start writing in earnest again.

I was beginning to learn the value of taking time for myself, and to truly realize that I need a clear separation between work life and home life before the pandemic hit and we were forced into lockdown. While quarantine has added stressors of its own, I have found that by continuing to take care of myself, I am better able to take care of others, and my creativity has not abandoned me as it has done in the past. I continue to write when I am able, and it is my hope that one day in the near future that I will be able to share The Caein Legacy with all of you.