Sorry I have been so remiss in updating this blog. I’ve been busily working on the sequel to Grunch Road which is turning into a four-part story arc under the heading of University of the Damned. The next logical step, since Nick graduates from high school at the end of Grunch Road, is to send him to college. I’m borrowing a trick from Peter Jackson, who directed the Lord of the Rings movies. He made all three movies at the same time, releasing them one at a time. Same with these books. The first two books are already written, at least in rough draft form. Book 1, University of the Damned, is a supernatural thriller in which the Iceman faces off against a witch named Monique de L’Ouest. I wonder if my readers will catch on to the fact that de L’Ouest is French for “of the west”? Book 2 (Sport of the Gods) takes on a totally different tone, more of a police procedural novel from a reporter’s point of view. The rough draft of that one is finished, too, and it’s one of the darkest books in the series, as Nick takes a very severe emotional beating when he becomes the prime suspect in a gruesome killing spree.
Nick Eismann has really gotten under my skin. On the first page of Grunch Road, he’s a relatively happy teenage boy sitting in the front yard of his father’s house. He’s turning into a force to be reckoned with, however, because of all the pitfalls I have thrown into his life. As Book 3 opens, he returns to his studies a changed man, more confident, more cocksure and more assertive.
Now I’m working on Book 3, Mad Science, which is more of a science-fiction work involving time travel, genetic engineering and mind control. I’m not even going to try to match the emotional intensity of Sport of the Gods. Writing it took a lot out of me. There were places in the story where I had to stop writing because I was bursting into tears. Wow. Book four reverses the time-travel angle when a figure from Nick’s future comes back from the future. Who is he? How is he connected to Nick? Well, you’ll just have to read the book, won’t you?
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