As most of you who read this know, I moved to the mountains of Southwest Virginia earlier this year -- not by choice, but in search of a new job, and in some ways a new start on life.
I've lived in a lot of places over the years, none really permanent since I was 16, though I thought I had found a small town where I'd settle in eastern North Carolina before losing my job. While the job loss and subsequent move wasn't in my plans, I love it where I am now.
Here's one reason why. A few days ago I had gone for quick run, and halfway through it I just stopped. I was on an isolated old road, surrounded by rolling fields. It was a cold day, the air filled with a fine mist, and a feeling of, for lack of better term, freshness in the air I never felt before moving here. The only thing I could see was a couple of ramshackle old barns looking as if they might fall at any second, a handful of granite stones protruding from the ground in a tiny, long-forgotten cemetery, and fog-shrouded ridges off in the distance.
That's when I heard them. The voices. No, I'm not crazy, I wasn't really hearing voices, but those hills, the farmland, even the cemetery -- they've been there for years, eons even, watching as the seasons passed, the land changed, as Native Americans walked the land, as Europeans settled the area.
What stories are floating around in those hollows? What tales can be heard by just listening, by feeling, what those mountains have to say?
Eventually I resumed my little run, but along the way a story began forming in my head. The story of a woman who grew up in those mountains, left her home as a teen for the big city and bright lights, and then came back...but that's enough for now, though this is a story that I believe will find life in 2014.
Before then, however, I have unfinished business.
A year ago I published two short stories, PRIVATE DINING and then ROOM SERVICE. My intent was to make them part of a long-running series, which I may yet do. What I will commit to is finishing the short trilogy those two were meant to be part of, and have that third, as yet unnamed tale, available in January.
After that comes the third installment in my Lethal Obsession Trilogy, which began with the novel LETHAL OBSESSION and continued with HELPLESS. The third installment, which as of yet is unnamed, will be out some time in the later part of February or the first part of March. While this will complete the trilogy, I haven't yet decided what to do with Detective Angela Martin. Who knows, maybe she won't survive the final installment?
I have a wicked little erotica tale after that which has planted itself in my head and won't go away. Despite all the experts saying indie writers should devote themselves to a series, this one tale I have to do, and it probably will be a stand-alone.
And did I say this one will be wicked?
And then I think it might be time to turn my attention to something outside the world of erotica, the story of that woman who came to me on that cold, rainy run. Where that story takes me, I'm not sure, but I will definitely have her tale for you in 2014.
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