Things to come…

Time for a little update on what is going on around the home office, and what is coming up in the near to not-so-near future. Obviously there is another entry in The Noble Dead Saga that will be hitting the shelves (online and in stores) at the end of December. If you have not taken a peek at it as yet, drop by NobleDead.org.

For the Saga’s Future…

A little while back, we finally finished the outline for the next book to come, S3B3. We have chosen a working title but this is still subject to additional changes—The Wind in the Night. Our collaborative outlines go way beyond what is done for a solo author, so there was a lot of work involved for yet another three interwoven stories in one novel, like you will see in S3B2: The Dog in the Dark.

This next volume to come turns back to Wynn, Chane, Shade, and now Osha from where we left them at the end of S3B1: Between Their Worlds. There will also be another minor character from the past out of S2B1: In Shade and Shadow, but we will leave “who” as a surprise. And before any of you panic…

Magiere, Leesil, and Chap will be in this next volume as well, and in every volume to come… right up to the end of the third series, the setup for the fourth and final series, and on to the saga’s grand conclusion.

The Mist-Torn Witches…

We have seen a preliminary cover for the first book in this new series by Barb, which carries the series name as its title… and the cover is outstanding! We are waiting to hear who the artist is, and hopefully we can share that much with you soon. The cover itself is perhaps one of the best renditions of character that we have had yet (according to Barb). Soon as it is actually finalized, we will share it with you.

All information and linkage for this new series (when we have something official) will be listed at both BarbHendee.org and NobleDead.org, since the series is set in the country of the Droevinka (Magiere’s original homeland) in the world of the saga. No, it is not a tie-in to the saga but an autonomous series that simply shares the same world. So look forward to future new faces and adventures that even new readers can jump straight into without any knowledge of the saga.

Karras the Cat…

Now that the outline for S3B3 is finished (some 50+ manuscript pages long), Barb is starting the drafting solo to give J.C. a break. He is also pushing aside other duties to (finally) finish the second of three connected works in the “Bones of the Earth” sequence for our Tales from the world of the Noble Dead Saga. Then of course he must dive right in with Barb on S3B3.

BE2: Karras the Cat will be made available by the end of the month, if not sooner. It will be a longer work than BE1: Karras the Kitten, possibly approaching the bottom end of novella length. But for all the waiting by readers, it will still be made available at the minimum price for “tales” of $3 USD. More to come on this once J.C. has something specific to announce.

The Noble Dead Glossary… or “Codex”…

In some past articles, J.C. discussed ways to re-establish the Glossary (and other reference information for the Noble Dead world) that was once on our old and now defunct nobledead.COM site. Efforts at finding a way to create an effective online system directly integrated in NobleDead.org (and not linked elsewhere) have failed to produce results to J.C.’s satisfaction. What can we say, he is picky, and so…

Another notion also mentioned by him was turning the Glossary into a regularly updated eBook instead. Much as this seems less accessible to readers without an eReader, it is the most workable answer at present. And those without an eReader could still access it if they wish via free apps from any online eBook vendor of preference that will run on Windows, OSX, etc. Why?

The Noble Dead “Codex” will be distributed by us through all vendors we use now or in the future for our “Tales”… and the Codex will be available for free!

This is still going to require serious effort, mostly by J.C., and some problems such as exporting and formatting data out of our intranet systems needs to be worked out. Since J.C. is already overbooked at present, it will start out small at first and not debut until the first of 2013. But it is now officially on his to-do list, and there will be a way for all of you to get involved if you wish.

Along with the Glossary, there may come (later) other additions as well, such as maps as seen in some of our books, so we are referring to it as a “Codex” instead of just a Glossary. It will (eventually) have its own page at NobleDead.org. Therein will be a link to a form that any reader can use to report errata, missing entries, suggestions, etc. specifically for the Codex itself and its next update. An update schedule will be set, likely quarterly, and anyone who has downloaded the Codex will have those updates appear automatically in their eReader and/or like app on their computer(s). We will leave it at this for now with more to come later.

That is all for now, dear readers. We will get back to you soon when we can take another break from what you are really interested in… more finished works to read! Thanks for taking a moment with us today.