I know this post has been a long time coming . . . and perhaps a bit over do. But as I've been working on writing, revising, and editing four books, along with a handful of short stories, I decided to put marketing and blogging to the wayside and focus more on producing quality work. And while this has hurt my ability to reach out to readers, I assure that it was done with the best of intents. Now, with my books completed, I'll be able to push more weight into getting the word out and hopefully resume building my fledgling fanbase. For those of you taking the time to read this post, I thank you and hope you find my tales worthy of your time. All four of my current releases are now available.

Just released was the second book in my Lonely Man series titled, "City of Blades." This comes more than a year after the first book, "The Witch's Price," was completed. My hope was the put out the three books in the series with as little break as possible, but after starting in on "City of Blades" I realized pretty quickly that the tale was increasing in complexity and would need far more attention than I'd initially assumed. Especially if I wanted to keep the narratives at the length I'd planned.

My Lonely Man series was intended to be three short, action-driven stories that defined the life of Mhets Sorrowbringer. But, as stories have a habit of doing, it took on a life of its own. It demanded certain confrontations. It begged for deeper philosophical insights. And it refused to be denied crucial revisits to the past . All of which give the story its unique flavor. With this further attention to "City of Blades" the series is now far grander in scope while holding true to my original vision of the three books carrying themselves as succinct and tight narratives. Which is no mean feat. These tales could have easily been expanded upon and the word counts bloated. Yet the length they've held to is fitting. I want these books to be quickly digestible narratives that garner a feeling of breathlessness and strength and scope. I feel this most closely mirrors the character of Mhets Sorrowbringer, and the integration of this concept, I feel, comes across cleanly. I did not want to set out and write a sprawling epic. I wanted a concise story focusing on a single character (told through two viewpoints).

Mhets is an anti-hero down to the definition (and perhaps even skirting the 'hero' part). But while he comes across as a foul and bitter bastard, he holds this small conviction that there's right things to be done in the world, even if on the surface they seem self-serving in their execution. And this is the beauty of Mhets' character. Superficially, he's this man bent on bringing hell where ever he goes, but he also gives hints that there's a softer exterior beneath his impregnable outer shell. This was what I had the most trouble with: that of portraying Mhets as a likable character. I didn't want him to be overtly empathetic, or a character that reader's immediately connect with; I wanted to readers to see deeper into his character, to understand where his pain and his sense of betrayal derives from, and then comes to understand him. This concept was touched upon in "The Witch's Price," and is highlighted in "City of Blades."

Ultimately, Mhets' evolution from villain to hero will culminate in the last Lonely Man novel, "The Chained God." With the release of that final book (some months down the road) I'll talk more about the overall writing process of the series.


If you've been paying attention to the prologues, you'll notice that they're following a linear path across books, highlighting Mhets' defining moments from the past that come around to influence his present day conflicts. Perhaps you can guess at what the opening scene in "The Chained God" might be ...



Thanks for reading.