A very good friend of mine who is also a very valued writing peer pointed out that it has been over a year since I last updated this blog, and that might give readers the impression that I am retiring.
I am not retiring. I consider Promises to Keep the official end of the "Den of Shadows" series because it makes such sweeping changes to the world, not because it is the last book I will write. The following deeper explanation could be considered slightly spoilery, but probably won't actually make much sense if you haven't read the book. If you don't want the Den of Shadows equivalent of techno-babble and possible spoilers, skip the next paragraph and move on.
"Den of Shadows" is the English translation I normally give for "Nyeusigrube." Nyeusigrube, however, is more accurately translated as, "The world of the Nyeusi." Nyeusi are all the creatures whose power comes directly from the elemental Leona- which, during the Den of Shadows series, means almost all the vampires, shapeshifters, and witches you have ever met. Up until the release of Promises, we were all living a world defined by Leona. The books that took place in this world were therefore Nyeusigrube books: Den of Shadows.
That said, the Maeve'ra Trilogy happens in 1803 and 1804 and could also be considered Den of Shadows books, so saying I'm DONE with that world is a bit of a lie. That trilogy looks back at a period in time that I have wanted to explore in fiction since I first published Shattered Mirror in 2001 and Midnight Predator in 2002: the era of the original Midnight.
What does the world look like in 1804?
Midnight is at the height of its power. New Mayhem is a baby town, still considered a backwater by most vampires and a relatively unknown entity by anyone else. The Vida, Smoke and Arun witches are huddled together in the town of Vieton; their main goal is survival, and even that looks questionable, as evidenced by the fact that the Light line was lost a century ago. The Bruja Guilds are newly formed.
The shapeshifters still have empires. The shm'Ahnmik, Shantel and Azteka are still powerful forces with extraordinary magic. An Azteka bloodwitch has the ability to boil your blood with a single touch. A Shantel sakkri can bend the laws of space and time. A jaes'shm'Ahnmik can warp reality, not to mention your mind and spirit. Yet Midnight still rules. The serpiente Diente and the avian Tuuli Thea are beholden to the vampires' empire, and even the Azteka, shm'Ahnmik and Shantel negotiate with them with wary respect.
That's where we are when Maeve'ra opens.
What about after Maeve'ra (2017)? I'm still not retiring. I have two books in rough-draft form already that I'm considering, and a couple more I'm playing with. I also have an adult fantasy trilogy I'm slowly moving in the direction of possible publication.
So why don't I update this blog more often?
I have a lot to do- including teaching, managing a household, and writing and editing those next books you ask about! If you want frequent updates from me, please log into the message board. I read new posts there all the time, and post there fairly regularly. I post to my Facebook less frequently, but again, I read comments. I am not good at replying promptly to private messages. This isn't because I don't care; I want to put attention into replying, and then I run out of time.
I read every word you send to me, even when I'm terrible about writing back. You, my readers, are my inspiration. You're why I keep publishing even though it's tough to scrape out the hours it requires to get a book ready for print. If you keep reading, I'll keep writing.
... it just won't always be on my blog.
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