Hey, Friends! I’ve been hard at work on something for most of the summer (along with some other things I can’t talk about yet), and I haven’t said much (or anything) on this blog about it. I feel weird talking about works-in-progress because, well, they’re in progress. It’d be like a runner giving live commentary during a marathon. Or Daryl Dixon explaining how his zombie-killing efforts are going as he takes aim. Or a cattle breeder explaining how well his bull—

Okay, you get the point.

So I don’t really talk about stories while I write them. Except for now.

I’m making a small exception because I’ll be finishing this novel soon and turning in the edited manuscript by the end of September. And I’m getting nervous. Not just because I have less than two months to go, but because of the final scenes I’m gearing up to write. This book was strange because the only scene I had in mind before I put fingers to keyboard was the very last scene.  And I’m scared of writing that final scene because it’s…

Anyway. Castle of Sorrows is coming in eleven months. It’s the sequel to my debut novel The Sorrows, which you can purchase right here. The book has performed far beyond my expectations, and judging by the reviews, emails, and other reader reactions I’ve received, I think there are quite a few people interested in where this story is going to go.

That’s all for now. I’ve got to go read to my kids before they start getting out of bed so I can tell them to go back to bed so they can pretend to go to sleep before sneaking out again. And after we do that for roughly an hour, I’ll be returning to my lonely island off the coast of California…