In Pursuit

A few of you who’ve kept up with my work by way of direct communication or via some of my press releases are aware that I’m presently at work on a new novel. Ultimately, I had set a calendar date for myself to be completed….and then there was the faint sound of laughter overhead. As it often goes with the creative process, things change. Half-way through the story I realized I didn’t want to go in the direction that the new novel, entitled Prey, was headed. What to do, what to do?

Exit Prey.

At present, I have a character gallery numbering in the two-hundreds; all of whom have their place in various books I’ve outlined, started, shelved, retired, etc. Part of the revision to the novel allowed me the opportunity to do something I don’t like to do: forget characters. I invest a lot of time in building each character, from their name to their place in the story to their origins. With this novel, I opted to remove not one character, not two…but five. Five characters that I had high hopes for were instead removed in every way, shape and form.

By removing these characters and their scenes, I essentially cut the draft in half. This provided me with the freedom to reshape the entire plot of the story and to refine what was once going to be a large-scale story into a story which will allow me to explore the world I created on Bishop’s Island. Setting the books in a fictional world allows me the freedom to not be restrained by history, pop culture or even the future.

Enter Pursuit: A Bishop’s Island Tale

That is the present title of the novel now. Obviously, the subtitle will be reduced to cover art only but it still allows me to separate my stories into two lists – the other being the world of Eric Kade and his adventures.

So, you’ve got a title. But what’s it about?

Pursuit will tell the story of a married couple and their commitment to one another after the main character, Aryn (alt. spelling of Erin) Rayburn, is taken from her home. Her husband, Ryan, (Aryn/Ryan) sets out to find his wife by following a series of clues she leaves along the way. For this story, I’ve created a series of glyphs – images that Aryn uses as part of her own system of communicating messages with Ryan. While he is trying to find his wife, she is trying to find out why she’s been taken and the truth of her captor’s agenda. As their story unfolds, the history of Bishop’s Island is revealed and The Five Families, the bloodlines interwoven into the history of Bishop’s Island, are expanded upon.

In Homecoming, I started leaving small clues for a larger story I wanted to tell over the course of my work. Readers have already been introduced to a few members of the Five Families (T5F) and a couple of characters introduced in that novel will return for appearances in Pursuit. There may even be further explanation of that little cliffhanger at the end of Homecoming.

So, I’m finishing the second act, planning a big ending for this novel and looking forward to (hopefully) releasing it sometime this autumn!