It's had a very good week. My Amazon sales have been steady, and since Amazon is the 800-pound gorilla in the room, this is good news for Mug and Meralda.
Why?
Because this guarantees Book 3 in the series. And it won't be three years coming, either. The outline is already taking shape. The new Intrepid is being designed. By the way, I need eleven million cubic feet of lifting gas, and six hundred and seventy-four miles of bare Number 3 copper wire. Just in case you have quantities of either lying around.
I'm even building a solar system just for this next book, because yes things are moving out of the storm-tossed skies above Hang and the Realms and the Great Sea, and our heroine will setting out for the vast dark spaces of the heavens in Book 3.
Yeah, Mug isn't thrilled with that idea at all. But he'll go anyway, because I'll finally get to use the tagline below:
In space, no one can hear Mug complain.
And what will the title of this new Mug and Meralda adventure be?
Look at the titles of books 1 and 2 first:
All the Paths of Shadow,
All the Turns of Light
The two lines above almost read as though they form a fragment of a poem, do they not?
That's because they do. This is a 4 book series, and by the time the final book is published, you'll be able to stand the books side by side in order and read the entire poem.
So what is the title of Book 3?
Well, I'm torn between two titles, actually. Because I'm deep-down an awful person, I'll give you only one of my choices for the title of Book 3. If I go with this one, the still-incomplete poem will read:
All the Paths of Shadow,
All the Turns of Light,
Every Wind of Change,
Blankety Blank Blank Blank.
No way am I spilling the 4th and final line this early.
Markhat fans, please don't think I'm giving up on him and Darla, because I'm not! Remember, the new Markhat book, The Darker Carnival, comes out in April. And you'll be happy to know I've started a new Markhat book, entitled Way Out West.
Which means I'll be working on two books at once, thus running the risk of accidentally dropping Mama Hog in on Meralda, or featuring a scene in which Mug and Darla exchange barbs over her choice of summer hats. Which will never happen. Although it might be funny, just as an exercise...