The Kinshield Saga continues

My original intention was to limit The Kinshield Saga to two books: The Kinshield Legacy and The Wayfarer King. However, I left a door ajar at the end of The Wayfarer King -- where "Cirang" unexpectedly survives her encounter with Ritol.

I've spent the summer & fall working on the next book about Gavin Kinshield and his friends. As I got closer to the end, I realized that to create a new series would require more backstory and more explanation of the magic. No matter how hard I tried to justify calling it book 1 of a new series, the fact of the matter was that it's really book 3 of the first series. It's all part of the same overall story arc.

Like The Wayfarer King, the new book, Well of the Damned, picks up immediately where the previous book left off. Had several years gone by, or even months, it might have been easier to convince myself that it was the beginning of a new series about the existing characters, but that just "felt" wrong. When I asked some writer friends about it, they agreed. It's better to call it book 3 than risk confusing readers who begin with book 1 of the new series and find themselves in the middle of the larger story.

So I'm here to announce that, officially, The Kinshield Saga, originally intended to be a two-book series, will become a four-book series. The story will conclude at the end of book 4, and whoever is left alive will live happily (or not) ever after.

Having banished the demon released from its prison by his defeated nemesis Ravenkind, Gavin Kinshield faces new challenges: a magical barrage by Ravenkind's grieving mother and an age-old mystery whose time has come to be revealed.

A former member of an elite battlers' guild, Cirang Deathsblade has a dark past. She sits in gaol, awaiting the new king's sentence for her terrible crimes... but she's not who he thinks she is.

In exchange for a leniency, Cirang leads Gavin to a centuries-old, hidden journal that holds the secrets of ancient kings and a magical wellspring with its own dark past... and an even more terrible future.

The official release date will be Dec 25, though it might show up on Amazon, B&N, Kobo, etc. before then. I can't show you the cover art, because I don't have it yet, but I'm 99.9% sure everything will come together by Christmas. :)