Your First Warning. That is to say, Tease.

 

A detail from the original cover art

I am, as I always am, delighted to announce that I have finished the first draft of a new novel. The boring one. 80K boring words to date. I started writing this novel on the 1st of March, 2025, and worked on it over the course of the following three or four months. I managed to get something like 24K words into it, before stopping. Started again, and stopped again over the following seven or eight months. I seriously questioned if I'd ever get it written, or if I wanted to. Writing a boring novel is boring. But on the 3rd of March 2026, I pulled up my socks, buckled my belt, and sallied forth to finish the damn thing. I wrapped this first draft up on the 22nd of June, to my great relief. Writing a mundane story where nothing happens is a monumental task. I can see now why literary fiction writers are so celebrated.

If you happened to have read a post of mine here a few weeks back describing my writing process, and then do the math (or maths, if you prefer), you will come to the alarming conclusion that I might be able to unleash this thing on the world sometime in September 2026, the gods willing and the creeks don't rise. However, if I want anyone to read this work, it is essential that I tell my mundane story in some sort of an entertaining way. That's the only way to tell mundane stories and expect them to be read. That being the case, I have my work cut out for myself. While I always try to tell my stories in an entertaining way, this story is the challenge of a lifetime. (Part of its charm for me.) I'm far from sure I'm up to it. But rest assured, you'll see the results of my efforts, one way or another, gods and creeks willing, sometime this fall.

As I see it, the only way to sell this story is to tease the snot out of it. Make it a read it or be square sort of thing, just to know if it is a boring as I make it out to be, or even more boring. Make it the long tease. 

So, let's begin. I will say this much - it's a Lorrian novel, set entirely in the city of Celora six months or so after the events of Glencrow Summer. However, it has a new cast of characters, along with a few cameos from Chateau Clare. And unlike the previous two novels in this timeline of the Lorrian novels - the Post-Second Founding period - there is absolutely no speculative fiction element in it at all, save for being set on a world other than our own. It's as mundane as any literary fiction novel, but without all that serious, thought-provoking, baggage they often include. 

I've already painted a possible cover for the book, in my best Van Gogh style and I've included a detail from the original painting above. It will mostly be covered up on the back cover. Another tease.

Stay tuned, more teases in coming.