reader questions – GHOST IN THE PACT, GHOST IN THE WINDS, and FROSTBORN #11

We’re about a third of the way through 2016, and I’ve published three books – FROSTBORN: THE HIGH LORDS, MASK OF DRAGONS, and GHOST IN THE PACT. So it seems like a good time to answer some common reader questions about what I plan to write next.

First, thanks for reading! There are a billion different ways to amuse yourself, so I’m grateful that reading my books is one the ways you’ve chosen to spend your hard-earned dollars and hours (especially when there are never enough of either). Now onto the questions!

Q: When will the 11th Frostborn book, FROSTBORN: THE FALSE KING, come out?

A: I suspect July. I’m going to start writing it in a few weeks once CLOAK GAMES: SHADOW JUMP is done.

Q: How many Frostborn books will there be? I read FROSTBORN OMNIBUS ONE and liked it, but I am apprehensive about starting another long series.

A: There will be fifteen total. No one ever believes me when I say this. Nevertheless, there will be fifteen books, and I hope to conclude the FROSTBORN series in 2017 barring health problems and unexpected Real Life difficulties and such.

Also – I don’t mind this question at all. I totally get it. Several writers of long-running series seem more interested in the internal politics of the SF/F traditional publishing world than in actually finishing their long-running series (which is kind of sad, because traditional publishing is as obsolete as the titles of feudal nobility – it’s like watching impoverished geriatrics argue over who has the proper claim to be the 29th Earl of Castle Nowherehamshireville). So I completely understand why readers have apprehension about starting an unfinished long series, given the many, many, many precedents of failure.

Additionally, I really don’t like cliffhangers, either, since it’s asking the reader to take a total trust fall, and I’ve only done them a few times, and only when I thought it was the best choice for the story.

But! I fully intend and plan to finish the FROSTBORN series in 2017.

Q: When will GHOST IN THE WINDS come out?

A: September or October. That will be my next project after FROSTBORN: THE FALSE KING.

Q: How many GHOST EXILE books will there be?

A: Nine.

Q: Does that mean GHOST IN THE WINDS is the last GHOST EXILE book?!?

A: Yes. But! It won’t be the last GHOSTS book.

Q: So what will the book after GHOST IN THE WINDS be called?

A: Spoilers.

Q: Then what are you working on right now?

A: CLOAK GAMES: SHADOW JUMP, and I hope to have it out in May or June.

Q: When will MASK OF SPELLS come out?

A: Right after FROSTBORN: THE FALSE KING. One of the more valuable tricks I learned in 2015 is how to work on two books at once, and so I’ll start MASK OF SPELLS at the same time as FROSTBORN: THE FALSE KING. Like, I wrote the first 18,000 words of CLOAK GAMES: SHADOW JUMP while I was writing GHOST IN THE PACT, which is a huge boost when I started to work on SHADOW JUMP in earnest.

Q: Is MASK OF SPELLS the final book of the MASK OF THE DEMONSOULED trilogy?

A: Yes.

Q: Will your write more DEMONSOULED (or possibly THE THIRD SOUL) books after MASK OF SPELLS?

Maybe. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do when FROSTBORN is done, but I think I’m only going to do FROSTBORN, GHOSTS, and CLOAK GAMES until FROSTBORN is done in 2017. I think that should be enough to keep me busy.

-JM