But never fear, The Founders' Tribunal is only a 25K word potboiler of a novella that I plan to release as an ebook/audiobook only in the first week of November 2025. Let's call it my 2028(a) Project.
And kids, do as I say, not as I do. I say; writing sequels for anything but runaway bestsellers is for clumps. This is a sequel to The Darval-Mers Dossier, which is not a runaway bestseller. So, yes, I'm a chump, but I had reasons...
In this case it was simply an any port in a storm issue. I needed something to get out of bed in the morning to write. I had started writing my next full Lorria novel when I ran into something of a wall at about the 24K word count. This was because, one, I hadn't thought the story through to the end in any detail, and two, I felt that I needed to revise what I had written in light of my epiphany of the yin and yang of writing. And so, I needed to walk away from that project for a time to get the complete story in my head before I could put words on a screen again. Hence my need for something else to write every morning.
This story, in particular, came about because I was actually toying around with the vague idea for another Red Hu/Wine story, which, I have to admit, I shouldn't have been, if I listen to what I say. (But then why should I? No one else does.) In any event, I wanted that story to be set in the summer following the events of The Darval-Mers Dossier. However, I felt that the gap between stories was too long. Plus, there was a character who appeared in that first story only as voice on the caller who I wanted to properly introduce. And so bridge that gap and properly introduce that character, I felt that I needed to write a story to fill it. I would have been happy with a short story, but it ended up as The Founders' Tribunal, a novella. I have now started writing and hope to complete the summer story, but it is still very much a bird in the bush. The Founders' Tribunal is, however, written and handed off to wife for proofreading, after which is will be offered to my beta readers for their input. In short, it's a bird in the hand.
I'll talk more about The Founders' Tribunal closer to its release date, suffice to say, as you can see from the cover art, the story is set in winter Celora, during and after the week-long Solstice Holiday - the extra week in Lorria's six-day-five week-12 month-year. In it Red agrees to act as something of a body guard for an important personage summoned before the title "court." These stories are set in the pre-Second Founding period of Lorrian history, when the Great Houses, old and new, confront the prospect of a new economic reality, and strove to make certain they not only survive, but continue to prosper, and rule. A bare knuckle, knives out period within that exalted circle.
As for the cover(s) of this book I had two pieces of art I had on hand that I felt I could use. I painted both years ago, but I figured they would do for setting the mood of the story's setting. The top one is my current favorite. its more moody and I like understatement for just about everything. Still, I could make the case for the bottom one. It's more graphic... Your opinions are always welcome. We have months to decide.
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