Today I'm going to respond to a few questions e-mailed to me from readers. And although I have already replied to the e-mails, I thought the questions were the sort I should answer publicly, in case anyone out there was curious and just too lazy to write me. So, without much more delay, the questions!

"You said you might show the cover for the next lonely man book. Are you?"

Yes.

"Will there be a scene in City of Blades that shows Mhets and Sobrita together?"

No. I'll expand on this a bit. I'm all for revisiting the past. That's been shown in the prologue to "The Witch's Price" and throughout "The Paruus Histories." But in regards to a scene with Mhets and Sobrita, no. I feel that the emotional connection between the characters has been established to such a degree that any attempt at adding anything more might reach the point of being too sugary. My "Lonely Man" books aim for a darker, gritter feel. Sometimes the darkness and grit comes out through Mhets' grief, which is fine. But I see no need to bring in a scene solely for the purpose of rephrasing Mhets and Sobrita's relationship.

"You haven't posted any short stories on your website for a while. Are you working on any?"

I am working on one, a prequel novella to "The Pale Hand of God." But when I say 'working' what I mean is that I have a few pages done and I sometimes think about writing others. This is due to my current writing on "City of Blades." As for more short stories . . . maybe in the future, when I'm not so bogged down on novels. But I will say that my short story "Golden Sword," will be in "City of Blades." And I may post that short on my website. We'll see.

"You talk a lot about reviews for your books. How do you deal with negative reviews? Fellow writer here, dreading the day I release my story to the world."

First, if you're dreading getting your story out because you're afraid some people aren't going to like it, then you're in for a heap of trouble in the writing world. I've come to terms with the fact that some people just have different tastes than others. Some won't like my book and they'll want to let me know. That's fine. Not everyone will like your book. If you think about it, take your favorite story of all time, whatever it is, and try to understand that there is someone, somewhere who's read it and absolutely hates it. Yeah, it's hard to wrap your head around that. But that's the world. I can only say that you should write something that makes you happy, that you can be proud of. You'll find people who enjoy it, and those will be the readers you turn to when a nasty review rears its nasty little head. Also, some people are just meanies.

"Maps?"

Yes. Forthcoming. I'm no cartographer, but the scribblings I've so far amassed will soon take shape. These will be for "The Paruus Histories." "The Lonely Man," I'm not sure yet.

There's those, and to close, scroll below.



































"The Lonely Man: City of Blades" Reveal!