Ready For the New Term?

Mike and I basically knew from the beginning that we'd want to return to the world of The Black River Chronicles.  I mean, you don't call a book Level One unless you're at least a little bit hopeful that there'll be a level two, a level three, and so on, do you?  And even as we were writing the first book, our thoughts kept straying to how we wanted these characters to grow.  What happens to Durren now that his secret's at least partially out?  Just what is Tia hiding?  And will Arein ever stop naming everything she meets after her childhood pets?  In the same way, there are so many parts of this world yet to visit: really, we've only scratched the surface.

But for any of that to happen, The Black River Chronicles needed readers - at least enough of them that pressing ahead wouldn't be an insane decision, but ideally a significant number of people who reached the end of Level One and wanted to hang out with Durren and the gang again just as badly as the two of us did.  And, as I've learned the hard way before now, there are no guarantees in publishing.  Just because we felt that we had something fresh and fun and exciting, didn't mean anyone else would.

With that in mind: a huge thank you to everyone who's embraced this first book, it means the world to us both.  Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to spread the word and everyone who's gone onto Amazon and Goodreads to throw goodwill our way.  And make that an especially big thank you because now I get to announce that the response has been strong enough to make a second book not only feasible but sensible.  As of the start of this month, the scary paperwork side of things has all been sorted, and as of right now synopses have been discussed, and very soon the real donkey work will begin.  All of which is to say, expect to see a new Black River Chronicles chronicle before the year is out.

And, you know, expect it to be awesome.  I won't go into details yet, for obvious reasons!  But suffice to say that we'll be seeing new challenges, new places and new characters, and that getting to level three from level two is substantially more difficult than from level two to level one, especially when - but no, it's definitely too early for spoilers!  For the moment, let's just say this: I'm thrilled about the story that Mike and I are planning, it feels like a real advance on the foundations we've built, and if you liked Level One even a little bit, I think you're going to love this one.