Keith Robinson's Blog, page 7

Writer's block, stalling, and just plain old procrastination

I hit the halfway mark of my latest novel, Sinister Roots, and came up against a roadblock. Well, not so much a roadblock, more of a fork in the road without a signpost. I knew where I needed to get to, but I couldn't decide how best to get there.

I've never suffered from "writer's block" -- unable to think what to write or trouble getting the creative juices flowing. Apparently, some writers can go for years without being able to write anything! Yeesh. This is a common theme in movies about authors; they're always so angst-ridden and irritable! I don't buy it, though. Personally, I think anyone who suffers from writer's block can't be a true writer. In my opinion, a writer's only real problem is finding time in their life to get all their ideas down on paper.

Anyway, the problem I had recently was not writer's block. It wasn't even a case of stalling, which is what happens when you suddenly realize you don't know where you're going with the story. I've stalled before, in my very early days, and it's not pleasant. I remember stalling with Island of Fog and ended up ditching a whole bunch of chapters and going off in a different direction instead.

I wasn't even procrastinating. No, the issue I had was that, in addition to the main plot, I had a half-formed subplot that I expected to solidify as time went on. It's quite common for me to have several threads that I plan to knit together after I've figured out exactly how they relate. This is a challenge I set myself to keep things fresh. It's like taking a few cool and very different ideas and throwing them together in a bowl to see how they blend. Normally, I can make it work, and it's always exciting to have that Eureka! moment when a logical connection presents itself. Sometimes I can't make it work, though. Sometimes Plot Thread A and Plot Thread B work nicely together, but Plot Thread C refuses to fit in.

In the case of Sinister Roots, it was coming along very nicely except for one sticking point. I stopped writing and decided I needed to give this some serious thought before resuming, and so I pondered and cogitated for a week or two, looking for that perfect connection. But it never came. Reluctantly, I decided I'd have to drop that idea and move on. Hey, if it ain't working, then dump it.

With that decided, I resumed writing. There's a small gap (a couple of chapters) between the first and second halves, which I'll back-fill later. I'm eager to move on to the exciting second half, so that's what I'm doing. I recently finished a scene where Travis and his friend Rez leave a misty bog behind, which is apt since I'm just now picking up momentum after being stuck. If I had any advice for writers, it's to avoid becoming mired in a scene that isn't quite working. Just skip it and move on. As long as the basic plot works, the details of that missing scene will usually become clear eventually, and you can go back and bridge the gap then.

So, Sinister Roots is over halfway done and moving at quite a pace. There are four very different elements to this story: the talking trees of the forest, a community of trolls, the fact that Travis is a chimera shapeshifter, and a visit to the Grim Reaper. (I had a possible fifth element, but that's the one I ditched.)

"Why on earth would the boys want to visit the Grim Reaper?" I hear you ask. Well, that would be telling. You'll just have to wait and see. I expect this novel to be launched late-June or July.

How do most readers find good new books to read?

As an author, I have a few choices to make when publishing each new book, such as which two categories to choose, which seven keywords or key phrases are most useful, and how keyword-rich the title and synopsis should be. All these factors supposedly help readers find my books.

But do they? How do most readers actually find books to read? How do YOU find books?

Let's assume you primarily read Kindle books. What's the single most likely way you'll find/choose your next read? I know some people will start with a free book, and if they like it, they'll buy the rest in the series. Others go by recommendations regardless of cost. Or you might keep seeing a book cover pop up everywhere to the point that you have to go check it out.

Do you judge books by their covers? Or do you go on recommendations and reviews regardless of whether you like the cover or not? Or a bit of both?

When it comes to reviews, how many is an ideal minimum? Are you suspicious when there are only glowing 5-star reviews? How much does the "verified Amazon sale" stamp mean to you?

Do you ever search for new books by typing in keywords or phrases like "manticore" or "fantasy adventure for preteens" and so on? Or do you prefer to browse categories? And if you browse categories, how deep do you drill? Some of those categories go on forever!

Whenever you search by keyword, do you search directly on Amazon, or do you search on Google and typically end up on Amazon? Do you ever check out the author's other work before making a decision? How important is an author website to you?

Lots of questions here, but I'd love to know how YOU go about finding that perfect book -- the methods you employ vs. things you avoid and so on.

Thanks in advance for your input!

On the lookout for repeated words in manuscripts

All too often when writing, I end up with repeated words in my manuscript. I'm sure this is true of just about every other author in the world. A quick example of what I mean:

It's not always noticeable as I'm writing because of the way I'll come back and rewrite a part of a sentence and so on, but it stands out during a read-thru. Even then, it amazes me how much can slip through unnoticed.

This example is from my latest short story addition, "The Silver Wand (Part 4 of 4)." As always, I write, edit, edit again, read it through, edit some more, and so on until I'm happy. But I freely admit I might not be quite as diligent as with my published novels. In this case, I asked Brian Clopper to have a quick read, and he noticed a high use of the word "look" and its variants. In fact there were 31 uses in a 6280-word story. I don't know if there's such a thing as a reasonable number of times a certain word can be mentioned per thousand words, but in this case, "look" stood out because I used it too many times in a very short space. Three uses in two lines of text? That's too much.

So I did a search and highlighted them all. Then I went through and adjusted the text to get rid of as many as possible. It probably wasn't necessary to get rid of as many as I did, but that's what happens once a word leaves a bad taste in your mouth!

Here's a before-and-after example of what I did:

Click to zoom

There are probably dozens of other repeated words in any single novel that could and should be cleaned up. But they really only become visible in extreme cases. As a reader, once you become of aware of a problem word, it's impossible to shake it, and suddenly that word seems to pop up everywhere. It's like when you're thinking of buying a car; as you leave the dealership to go home and think about it, ou notice that same type of car everywhere you go. Where did they all come from?

In fact, I still remember "wordlessly" as used by Terry Brooks in one of his original Sword of Shannara books, eg: Wordlessly, he got up and walked out. It kept popping up to the point of being annoying.For me, that particular word was used one too many times in a short space, just enough for me to think, "Huh, there's that word again..." After that, I noticed every single mention of it. I read those books twenty years ago and I still remember it.

That was a much more noticeable word that "look" and its variants, but it's the same problem, and authors should be aware. This is yet another reason beta readers are essential.

Free short story The Silver Wand (Part 4 of 4) now available

And now the final segment, Part 4 of "The Silver Wand," where Hal, Robbie, Abigail, and Lauren meet some people who might be able to help them get home at last! This time, they bump into three friends from the Sleep Writer books -- and a frizzy-haired alien with a suitcase.

I enjoyed this four-part special in which Hal and his friends cross over into other series by the same author (me!). It's just a bit of fun, but I was careful to make sure nothing I did interferes with the overall arcs of each series. I like the ins and outs of inter-dimensional travel as well as the nifty bit of time travel, both of which feature in the Sleep Writer series as well.

Next month it's back to one-offs.

By the way, I have enough short stories (around 46,000 words) to put together an Island of Fog Chronicles ebook. I plan to add one or two exclusive stories plus some author notes, so it should be worth grabbing.

Go read "The Silver Wand" now on my Island of Fog Free Short Stories page and find out more about the Sleep Writer.

Introducing the next book in the Island of Fog Legacies series

Unicorn Hunters, the first book in the Island of Fog Legacies series, has been available on Amazon and other stores for two weeks and is selling quite nicely:

"A ripping tale. I've read all of the fog series and picked this one up to see if it was as good. It didn't disappoint." —azebra

As usual when I publish a book, I'm nervous about how it will be received. That's been the case since the very first book I wrote, and it's the same today. Thankfully, so far so good!

"Keith Robinson has done it again! Unicorn Hunters a delightful addition to the stories of our favorite group of shapeshifters, but focusing instead on the next generation. The story is fun and fast paced, with lots of action and colorful characters. With every book written, I become more convinced that there in no bottom to the well of creativity that is Mr. Robinson's imagination. So happy to be able to spend more time with the characters and in the magical place that I have come to love so dearly. Cannot wait for the next book!" —Amazon Customer

I'm happy to say print editions are also now available on Amazon US and Amazon UK, and they look gorgeous! More on that in a separate post when I receive my first batch of stock copies.

Back to the reviews:

"Unicorn Hunters is a very enjoyable read. It has a perfectly paced storyline with interesting characters. I loved the humor, the drama and the flat-out surprises along the way. This one is going right beside all my other Island of Fog books. Highly recommended." —Kat B

But now to the point of this post, which is to introduce Book 2 in the new series. It was a lot of fun to writing Unicorn Hunters and continuing the Fog series with the next generation of shapeshifters (specifically Hal and Abigail's son, Travis). And it's really lit a fire under me to get the next installment done. I have no end of ideas, and it was just a case of choosing the right one: Sinister Roots.

In Unicorn Hunters, Travis launched himself into adventure without thinking. In Sinister Roots, his parents and Miss Simone send him on a simple mission to deliver a small package.

I don't want to give too much away about Travis's shapeshifting ability, but I see endless possibilities. The original Fog series had nine shapeshifters, so they could get stuff done with a little teamwork. Travis is on his own, but he can get just as much done thanks to a quirk in his genetic makeup that's really going to stand him apart from all the other shifters.

He sets off on this simple mission with his best friend Rez, who is completely human and unwilling to even entertain the idea of being a shapeshifter. It's up to Travis to keep him safe on their little journey. It's just a two-day round trip, and Travis's parents aren't too worried; their son can hold his own against the wildlife. But the mission doesn't quite go as planned thanks to the sinister tree-monsters who reside in the forest...

I'm only 10% into the writing of this book, partway through Chapter 4. The boys have set off on their journey, but already there's an ominous cloud on the horizon.

I expect Sinister Roots will be available to buy sometime around June 2016.

Answers to a few niggles

I received an email with some questions and suggestions about the Island of Fog shapeshifters, and I thought it would be worth addressing them here on my blog. A spoiler alert for those who have not read the entire series!

So here goes:

Can you make it so the prisoners, the scrags, become unshapeshifters by doing another blood transfusion on them? Because I thought you might have forgotten that and allowed them in your next book to keep being shapeshifters.

Not forgotten, no. This is briefly mentioned in Unicorn Hunters.

The blood transfusion Hal went through to rid himself of his werewolf curse cleansed his blood of dragon magic as well, so yes, the transfusion certainly would have worked on the scrags. And who's to say Miss Simone didn't do that with some of the more dangerous villains? But maybe most of those scrags, without their nasty Queen Bee leading them, eventually got out of prison, joined forces with Miss Simone, and accepted jobs in the community. This, after all, was what most of them wanted all along -- to be accepted into society.

As it happens, the years rolled by and their shapeshifting powers went stale. There's an old saying that you can't teach an old dog new tricks, and that's true of an adult body suddenly infused with magical blood. It might work at first, but the body fights back and restores normality. Children are best suited to shapeshifting. Their young bodies are more adaptable, and they take on the power with gusto. Their powers will last much longer than any scrag.

Except Seth. Remember him? He was also a scrag, but he was young enough to accept the shapeshifter blood and properly adapt to it. Word has it that he's still a dragon shapeshifter twenty years later, whereas the rest of the scrags are fully human again.

Let's not forget, though, that many of the scrags really just wanted to be ordinary again. A pleasant side effect of shapeshifting is that cells regenerate and wounds heal. So when the scarred virus victims transformed back and forth during that battle on the beach in Castle of Spells, their crusty, cracked skin softened and normalized. Scrags were no longer scrags after that. Mission accomplished.

Also, now Hal and everyone can change into whatever they want, with a simple blood transfusion!

Ah, now, wait a minute. Not everyone is going to jump at the chance to have their entire body drained of blood and flushed through! I doubt their parents would allow it, and Miss Simone would never agree to such a thing anyway unless there was a very good reason.

Hal and his friends have gotten to like their abilities and what they turn into, and nobody wants to risk something going wrong. The only person who might have a really good reason to give up his ability is Dewey, who was rightly ashamed of his centaur heritage after what the gang discovered on Whisper Mountain. But even then, you can't hate an entire race or community just because of a few bad apples. (And yes, that applies in the real world, too.)

Or if they can't change to a different species, they can at least make themselves bigger with a blood sample taken from the biggest dragon and then do a blood transfusion. After all I doubt they made Hal into the biggest dragon when they gave him the blood sample from Felipe's friend who want the biggest.

You have to remember that Hal is young throughout the 9-book series. Therefore he's a young dragon. To quote a passage from Unicorn Hunters:

Travis watched with glee, wishing he could be a dragon just like his dad. Of course, even if he were allowed, he wouldn't be that big. Not yet, anyway. But it wouldn't take long. As a human youth on the cusp of adulthood, he might only gain another ten or twelve inches in height, but his dragon form would grow three or four yards in length and probably put on a few thousand pounds of weight.

Also please make sure that no one else knows how to make people into shapeshifters, like lock up Queen Bee's lab guy.

Rest assured this was taken care of! Miss Simone has the system locked up good and proper these days.

I read the blurb on the first book on the Island of Fog Legacies and you want to make Travis a tiny wyvern? I dunno if that's gonna go good really. It doesn't feel as cool as the hero being an awesome dragon!

Haha! If everyone was an awesome dragon, what chance would there be for the enemy? It wouldn't be much of a story, would it? But like you said above, the scrag shapeshifting incident at the castle proved how dangerous it would be if villains were able to transform into deadly monsters. So Miss Simone -- along with the council -- has decreed that certain ferocious beasts are permanently off-limits. Want to be a dragon? Forget it. Try a soft-hearted dryad instead.

Actually, a wyvern is a pretty cool mini-dragon, and Travis should consider himself lucky. But when you read the book, you'll realize (as he does) that whatever he chooses comes with problems, and even the most horrendous monster can be captured. What really counts is cunning -- being able to use what you have to your advantage.

Oh and by the way one mistake, in one of the earlier books with the phoenix in, how come Hal and his friends didn't lose their powers when they were right next to Blair when he rebirthed?

Because Blair's rebirth power at that time was pitiful compared to the thousand-year-old phoenix he came to warn everyone about. As he said in Chapter Ten of Lake of Spirits:

But my demonstration is feeble compared to what a real phoenix can do. Especially old ones." And: "Jacob will be reborn, to live for another thousand years. But his regeneration will be... I don't know, ten, twenty, maybe even fifty times more powerful than mine."

Blair did manage to knock out a few nearby geo-rocks, and maybe he dulled the abilities of the shapeshifters for a while. If so, they didn't notice, and they had plenty of residual magic to recharge with. But Jacob's fiery rebirth utterly wiped out all magic for miles. It took months for it to leak back into the world.

You'll remember that Blair used his power again in Chamber of Ghosts and Valley of Monsters to reverse the gorgon's death gaze, and it took him several weeks to recharge. His power grew stronger each time, but even so, nothing beats soaking up magic for a thousand years.

Good writing, those are just a few niggles. :-)

Thank you! -- and I'm always happy to answer any niggles readers come up with.

Unicorn Hunters (Island of Fog Legacies #1) is published and available everywhere!

Yes, Unicorn Hunters officially went live on Amazon a couple of days ago, on March 15th 2016, and those who pre-ordered it already have a copy inside their hot little Kindle machines. The book is also now available to buy on other platforms as follows:

UNICORN HUNTERS
(Island of Fog Legacies #1)

It's been twenty years since Hal Franklin and his friends arrived in New Earth as full-blooded shapeshifters. It was inevitable that Hal and Abigail would end up together, and sure enough, now they have a child of their own -- young Travis, now twelve himself and wanting to follow in his father's footsteps as a shapeshifter dragon.

Of course, even though the Shapeshifter Program is available to any approved young person, Lady Simone can't allow just anyone to be fearsome beasts like dragons! No, not even the son of Hal and Abigail. So Travis chooses a wyvern, which is technically a dragon but small enough for Lady Simone to bend the rules for -- especially as the old soothsayer on the hill predicts a spot of unavoidable trouble ahead.

Does it involve the recent spate of hunters coming through into New Earth and terrorizing the wildlife? Travis is about to find out when he transforms for the first time and jumps into action to save a unicorn...

This is the first in a new series set in the ISLAND OF FOG universe but with a new generation of characters. Each book will be a self-contained story following the adventures of Travis.

Available on Amazon US | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble | Kobo Books | iBookstore. See also Goodreads.

Price: $3.99

It will also be available in paperback later this month. I'm just waiting on a proof copy, and if I like it, I'll hit the "publish" button.

Unicorn Hunters is the first of at least three books in 2016. The very next book I write and publish will be the second installment in this Island of Fog Legacies series, and it will be called Sinister Roots. After that, I expect to write Sleep Writer Book 4, Warp Giants. And somewhere along the way, I expect to put out another Island of Fog Chronicles, which will be a compilation of some of my free short stories plus a few new ones exclusive to the ebook.

Lots planned, so stay tuned!

Free short story The Silver Wand (Part 3 of 4) now available

It's time for Part 3 of "The Silver Wand," where Hal, Robbie, Abigail, and Lauren now find themselves in another odd place. Will they ever make it home? This time they meet the old man Abe from the novel Fractured about a week before that sci-fi and fantasy adventure begins.

The two "tales of Apparatum" novels, Fractured and Unearthed, are co-written by myself and Brian Clopper. They're a 50/50 mix of science fiction and fantasy, the epic struggle of two remarkably similar boys from entirely different corners of the world who find themselves using their extraordinary talents to overthrow their oppressive leaders and bring peace to the land. As it says on the cover: Two worlds. One Destiny.

These two books are available as usual in electronic form on Kindle, Apple, Kobo, and Nook -- AND, brand spanking new this month, they're also now available in print! Just follow the links to Amazon.

Go read "The Silver Wand" now on my Island of Fog Free Short Stories page and find out more about the world of Apparatum.

Using a Chromebook for novel writing and editing

Now that I've finished Unicorn Hunters and worked through comments and corrections, I'm reminded again how useful Google Docs is. So this post is for those who write or are in any way interested in my methods.

It's worth mentioning that I started AND finished the first draft of Unicorn Hunters in January 2016, and here we are midway through March and it's just about to publish. This is a huge achievement for me, yet it didn't seem to be as much effort as previous books have been. I'm not sure if it's because I enjoyed it so much or because I disciplined myself into writing a bit every morning and night and getting 2000 words a day completed. Maybe both. Either way, two months total for one complete novel? That's a record, and I know I can do it again.

Something else that helped enormously is what I wrote it on. I used to write in Word. Then I would transfer the novel to Google Docs so that my author buddy Brian Clopper could do a first-sweep beta-read and leave comments throughout. I then adjusted and produced a Kindle version, and I typically read that "fast" to see if anything else jumped out.

These days it's different. Last year I bought myself a Chromebook, which is an inexpensive laptop with a Google OS (not Windows) that is centered around apps from the Google app store. Google's Chrome browser is of course already installed, as is Google Docs, which is like a cut-down online version of Word, completely free.

My Chromebook is small and lightweight with around 8 hours of battery life and a super-fast "wake up" like a tablet. It's ideal for writing and editing on the go. Of course it works better when connected to the internet, but Google Drive works offline too; it just continues as normal until you get back online, and then it re-syncs with the cloud.

That's the thing about Google Docs. It saves to the cloud as you type, and so if you have to quit suddenly or the battery happens to die, you don't lose a thing. I can write half a sentence on the Chromebook, shut it down, open the document on my tablet or phone, and type the rest of the sentence. (Of course, while editing and commenting is easy on small devices, writing is obviously much better done on a laptop with a proper keyboard.)

Anyway, the point is that my writing productivity has increased quite a bit. The 11.6" Chromebook is more portable than my 17" work laptop, and its battery lasts eight times longer. I can much more easily read and edit in the living room instead of making a decision to go to my office (which oftentimes means I don't bother). And I can very easily sit in the van and write for two hours while my daughter is at basketball practice.

So, once the book is written -- and I usually separate it into two or three chunks just because it can get a tad sluggish when you're up above 30,000 words -- I share it with Brian. I just set the permissions for the document (I choose from three options: Edit, Comment, and View) and allow him to comment. This means he can highlight bits and write comments in the margin. But also, there's a fantastic "suggestion" mode that allows him to actually "edit" the document text; his suggestion is in pale grey, and it's saved as a comment that I can either accept or deny. Very cool.

I can't say enough good things about Google Docs. I'm sure other people have their preferred methods, but nothing comes close to this for sharing. When we're both online at the same time, I can see his comments appearing on the side, and I can reply instantly like it's some kind of chat tool.

Anyway, just thought I'd share in case anyone is interested!

Early reviews for Unicorn Hunters

After several read-thrus of Unicorn Hunters and a slew of fixes, I finalized the manuscript and uploaded it to Kindle on March 4th. It's now completely and utterly done, and it will auto-publish on March 15th. Those who pre-ordered it will receive their spanking brand new copy the very moment it becomes available.

If you haven't pre-ordered yet, you can still do so here:

Buy Now on Amazon US for $3.99 – delivered to your Kindle on March 15th, 2016

Or buy it on Amazon UK and other countries (asin number is B01C4FPR2O).

(Pre-orders will help boost its ranking, because it will be like a miniature avalanche of orders when it publishes on March 15th.)

Early reviews are in. I had three beta readers for this book, and for those who indignantly cry, "Hey, what about ME? Nobody asked ME to beta read!"... well, I was on a very short timeline, and I chose three beta readers who have particular strengths as well as a fast turnaround. I'm well aware there are others who would have served equally well, but, well, maybe next time?

Anyway, here is some of the feedback.

Bear in mind that my first port of call is always my author buddy Brian Clopper, and this time around we actually swapped books because we're both planning to publish on the same date, March 15th. So I read and commented on his while he worked on mine. Along with typos and other minor things, he suggested a couple of important changes, which I agreed with. In the end, he was happy and offered the following "official" review (which he'll post to Amazon later)...

For those craving more adventures in the Island of Fog universe, Unicorn Hunters is an exciting debut. The first in the Island of Fog Legacies series, it casts a light on the next generation of shapeshifters.
      The hero is Travis Franklin, son of Hal and Abigail. The series is told from his point of view and it offers a fresh perspective from his father's, which was the viewpoint for the original nine books. Travis becomes a shapeshifter like his father, but his abilities turn out to be wildly different than what happened to his parents. I won't divulge the clever twist, but it's so brilliant and paves the way for a huge variety of stories.
      Travis is an assertive boy who has no qualms about diving in when he sees an injustice. When he rushes to the aid of a unicorn, his story takes him to Old Earth where he comes up against the despicable practices of a rich collector, Mr. Braxton. Readers are treated to scads of magical creatures that really liven up the already dynamic plot. Travis, aided rather poorly by a mysterious imp, must find a way to free the creatures captured by Mr. Braxton. Along the way, he makes numerous alliances with creatures whose trustworthiness is ever in question.
      Robinson delivers tons of action, wonderful plot twists and a preponderance of character development (and I don't often dust off and bring out that word). I have a feeling this series will expose a whole new generation to the magic Robinson weaves in all his books, whether it be a Island of Fog novel or one from his other inventive series like Sleep Writer or Tales of Apparatum.
      I know I'm eagerly looking forward to the next adventure of Travis Franklin.

After that, I sent the book on to a couple more beta readers. One said this partway through:

I'm loving the ride, and very curious about the little imp. I'm particularly enamored of Lightfoot. At first I thought you were aiming for a much younger audience, but now that Travis is setting about the rescue of the other creatures, it is more reminiscent of the original Island series. You have a way of drawing the reader into the immediacy of the situation, which has always been your strong suit. I'm really hoping that at some point those nasty Old Earthers get permanently shut out of New Earth -- so you are certainly making me care about the characters. Still a few chapters to go, but my initial impression is that Robinson rocks on with this new series.

And after the book was finished:

I thought it was great. I was prepared to not like it as much as the Island books, because after all they were The Island Books. I enjoyed the new characters, the dialogue, the humor, and of course all the surprises along the way. I loved it and will be looking for future Legacies just as I did with the Island series. Matter of fact, I may just revisit the Island this Spring.)

The third reader actually read it with (and out loud to) her husband and three daughters. Near the end, and after I impatiently badgered her, she said:

Love, love, loving it so far! Only found a few minor things here and there. Nothing but a slight puff of breath and a shine with your sleeve and it will be perrrrrfect! Only complaint so far? "This book just seemed so short, didn't it? I want to hear more." Lol. Two thumbs up, oh impatient one! Tiny list of found mistakes swiftly forthcoming.

And then:

We loved it! Every person in this family, from the tall to the small, said it was a great book. Our only complaint was that it wasn't long enough! :) Job well done, sir! We cannot wait to read the next book. Like really cannot wait, so please get on that. This book was very well written, very easy and pleasant to read, and already well polished. It was a really good story.

Despite sending both readers what I thought was a clean copy, they still found a bunch of typos and other small things, which I've since fixed. In fact, I read the book again while they were busy with it, and I found a bunch more things of my own! It just never ends. I'm happy now, though. Is it typo free? Probably not 100%, and if anyone finds an error, I'd be grateful to hear about it. But it definitely has the same sparkly sheen as every other book I've written. :-)

Not pre-ordered it yet? Do it now while digital stocks last!

Unicorn Hunters (Island of Fog Legacies #1)

It's been twenty years since Hal Franklin and his friends arrived in New Earth as full-blooded shapeshifters. It was inevitable that Hal and Abigail would end up together, and sure enough, now they have a child of their own -- young Travis, now twelve himself and wanting to follow in his father's footsteps as a shapeshifter dragon.

Of course, even though the Shapeshifter Program is available to any approved young person, Lady Simone can't allow just anyone to be fearsome beasts like dragons! No, not even the son of Hal and Abigail. So Travis chooses a wyvern, which is technically a dragon but small enough for Lady Simone to bend the rules for -- especially as the old soothsayer on the hill predicts a spot of unavoidable trouble ahead.

Does it involve the recent spate of hunters coming through into New Earth and terrorizing the wildlife? Travis is about to find out when he transforms for the first time and jumps into action to save a unicorn...

This is the first in a new series set in the ISLAND OF FOG universe but with a new generation of characters. Each book will be a self-contained story following the adventures of Travis.