Month: March 2016

I’ve had a busy start to the year, with some significant lifestyle changes (all for the better, I assure you), and it’s taken a toll on the writing time. I truly appreciate all the emails and social media comments about how much you all enjoy the series and are awaiting the next book … though I do come up with my best ideas on long walks, so that whole chaining-me-to-the-keyboard thing might be counter-productive. 🙂

HMS Nightingale is about 30% done and writing is getting more regular. I have pages of notes to work from for the story, so it’s coming along nicely. It will still likely be the second half of the year before it’s released, but I do want to make sure it’s up to the standards of the rest of the series, so I’m taking my time with that.

Planetfall, the novella prequel to the series, has been broken up into two parts. Part One will cover the time from the Dalthus colony’s landing until the death of Alexis’ grandmother and will be from Denholm’s (Alexis’ grandfather’s) point of view.

The second half will be from her father’s point of view and cover the time until Alexis is around three years old.

When I originally conceived of Planetfall, it was supposed to be a 20,000 word novella — now each of the two parts will run about 30,000 words.

Both parts of Planetfall will be given free to mailing list subscribers.

Thank you for your patience and thank you for reading Alexis’ story — I’ll keep you updated and get the next bits out to you as soon as I can. 🙂

The epic, behind-the-scenes story of an astounding gap in our scientific knowledge of the cosmos.

In the past few years, a handful of scientists have been in a race to explain a disturbing aspect of our universe: only 4 percent of it consists of the matter that makes up you, me, our books, and every planet, star, and galaxy. The rest—96 percent of the universe—is completely unknown.

Richard Panek tells the dramatic story of how scientists reached this conclusion, and what they’re doing to find this “dark” matter and an even more bizarre substance called dark energy. Based on in-depth, on-site reporting and hundreds of interviews—with everyone from Berkeley’s feisty Saul Perlmutter and Johns Hopkins’s meticulous Adam Riess to the quietly revolutionary Vera Rubin—the book offers an intimate portrait of the bitter rivalries and fruitful collaborations, the eureka moments and blind alleys, that have fueled their search, redefined science, and reinvented the universe.

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With what should have been the greatest heist of their career gone spectacularly sour, Locke and his trusted partner, Jean, have barely escaped with their lives. Or at least Jean has. But Locke is slowly succumbing to a deadly poison that no alchemist or physiker can cure. Yet just as the end is near, a mysterious Bondsmage offers Locke an opportunity that will either save him or finish him off once and for all.

Magi political elections are imminent, and the factions are in need of a pawn. If Locke agrees to play the role, sorcery will be used to purge the venom from his body—though the process will be so excruciating he may well wish for death. Locke is opposed, but two factors cause his will to crumble: Jean’s imploring—and the Bondsmage’s mention of a woman from Locke’s past: Sabetha. She is the love of his life, his equal in skill and wit, and now, his greatest rival.

Locke was smitten with Sabetha from his first glimpse of her as a young fellow orphan and thief-in-training. But after a tumultuous courtship, Sabetha broke away. Now they will reunite in yet another clash of wills. For faced with his one and only match in both love and trickery, Locke must choose whether to fight Sabetha—or to woo her. It is a decision on which both their lives may depend.

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