So What Am I Working On?

I’ve been getting this question a lot, probably because summer is when so many of us get a chance to catch up on our reading lists as we take our well-deserved vacations, so let me give you a little sneak peek.

Right now, I’m working on a book called Medusa’s Heart, with a tentative release date of October 31. Here’s the informal blurb:

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"The point wasn’t to win a war that had been lost, or to stop a death that had long turned bones to dust. It was to heal a broken heart."

John Pierce has been a Navy SEAL all his adult life. He doesn’t know anything else but that and being a Dom, because that’s how he blows off steam and balances the nagging emptiness inside of him. Since he was a kid, he’s carried around an infatuation that’s grown into an embarrassing obsession. He’s in love with a myth—Medusa.

“Mad Merlin” Maddock doesn’t think that’s crazy. He believes in powers deeper and stronger than men or gods, a connecting energy like the oceans. To those powers, healing a broken heart could create a ripple effect in the universe impacting all, even if that heart lives in the alternate dimension of folklore and myth. JP is the first one Maddock plans to send across those lines to bond with the woman he’s always wanted.

JP agrees to be his first guinea pig for two reasons. One, Maddock is so damn convincing, and two, the need for her has tripled since he met the guy. If Maddock can send JP into her world, JP will let nothing stop him from claiming her for his own and healing her heart, because he’s sure as hell she’s the missing piece of his.

He just has to make sure she doesn’t turn him into lawn ornamentation first.

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This book isn’t connected to any of my existing series. For years I’ve had this story idea niggling at the back of my mind about the Medusa myth, and the muse decided it was time to write it. I wasn’t sure what to expect of the story direction and, in truth, I’m still figuring it out, since I’ve only written the first draft and just started the first round edit, where I often do a lot of reworking of the story direction and delve far deeper into the characters. But I know the Greek version has bugged me for quite awhile. A priestess in Athena’s temple is raped by Poseidon and then cursed by Athena for “allowing” herself to be raped. WTF? Yeah, I know, there are a lot of layers and versions to the story, but that’s the one my muse wants to address.

Now, while I said the book isn’t connected to any of my existing series, that doesn’t mean some familiar faces won’t show up. Two characters from the Daughters of Arianne series, Clara and Marcellus, will have key roles in Medusa’s story. Which is kind of appropriate, since the Daughters of Arianne series was spawned by my interest in giving the original and tragic Little Mermaid story a better ending, or at least that of her descendants.

BUT WHAT COMES NEXT? Once I complete Medusa’s Heart, I’ll have a dilemma. Usually after I write a paranormal, I write a contemporary. My creative process works better when I alternate. But the muse is pushing pretty hard for the next Vampire Queen series book as well, so we’ll have to see what happens in the September-October timeframe. Regardless, one of the following two books will come after Medusa’s Heart, and then the runner-up will come after that.

CONTEMPORARY: My next contemporary will be the tenth book of the Nature of Desire series and it will be Regina and Marius’s story. Marius has shown up in snippets throughout the series. Off the top of my head, I know he’s been mentioned or appeared in Natural Law, Branded Sanctuary and Divine Solace, but it was in Divine Solace I received the strong ping that told me a) he would have his own book and b) who his love interest would be. Regina appeared at the slave auction in Branded Sanctuary, a tall, beautiful Domme with an interest in a challenge. She reappeared in Divine Solace with a blatant interest in Marius, because he is a pain-in-the-ass, full-powered, top-from-the-bottom alpha sub with a lot of brat thrown in just to yank a Mistress’s chain. But there has to be a reason for that, right? Regina knows there is, and she’s going to get to the bottom of it. She'll probably lose her heart in the process, but that’ll be a two-way street.

Note: You can browse all the books I just mentioned at that Nature of Desire series link noted at the beginning of the above paragraph.

PARANORMAL: For a while this was a coin toss, because I have two sets of characters at the front of the line. Alistair and Nina have been waiting for their story since we met them in Vampire’s Claim. Nina’s sister was trained from childhood to be an Inherited Servant, the elite of the vampire servant ranks, and she was promised to a vampire of the Council’s choosing. But on the eve of that happening, the sister dies in a car wreck, and the contract with the family means the next born child must be offered up as the InhServ. So Nina, with no training and no apparent interest in being a vampire’s servant, finds herself in that role. Whereas Lord Alistair, who has very little interest in vampire politics or patience for the uptight BS formalities of the vampire world, finds himself saddled with a supposed InhServ. Sounds like a fun story, doesn’t it? Alas, though, there’s a competing vampire story trying to step in front of it. That’s the way the muse works sometimes. It’s not always easy to predict which story she’ll point toward next, which is often why I couch such discussions with lots of words like “maybe”, “hopefully” and “if all goes as planned.”

In Night’s Templar, a vampire and his wolf shifter servant made a very significant impression when they took the stage as secondary characters for a small part of the book. And there’s a backstory there. I’ve never felt a pull toward writing a wolf shifter. I can’t explain why; I just never have. Then a particular reader started urging me to write one, and she and a couple other readers threw out some ideas that pinged with me, big time. Next thing I know, Cai and Rand appear in Night’s Templar, and now they want their own book. So it’s likely they’ll get the next Vampire Queen series slot, but I haven’t given up on Alistair and Nina. They might get a future vignette or novella instead of a full length, but eventually their story will be told. Otherwise they wouldn't keep pushing at me to write about them!

FREE CHRISTMAS VIGNETTE: Like I’ve done for the past several years, I also plan to write a free short/novella around Christmas time as my annual thank you to my readers. These vignettes revisit existing characters or capitalize on a flashback scene or memory that has occurred in my books. The choice of story/characters is usually a surprise. I keep a running list of suggestions from readers and, when it’s time to choose, I go down the list and see what jumps out and grabs me. I’ll keep you posted on which of these eventually gets chosen.

If this is the first time you’ve heard about these free vignettes, well over a dozen of them are available at the JWH Connection fan forum, under the Vignette section. They're available in all the popular download formats for your e-reader. If you’ve never visited the forum, you can find access info here.

So that’s the plan for the next 12-18 months...unless the muse changes her mind! Let me know if anyone has questions.

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WHAT’S JOEY PLANNING TO WRITE NEXT? Anytime you want to know what I have “in the works”, you can visit the page of the same name on my website, under the MORE drop down menu. But here’s the direct link to it.