Grimaulkin Redeemed has been finished and is at the editor. I feel pretty good about this story. Even though I didn’t tie up the loose end from Grimaulkin Tempted, I developed Grimaulkin into a reluctant hero, which was the point of this book. It’s the last in the series, but I don’t know if it’ll be the last we hear of Grimaulkin. I love him so much, I can’t give him up; and, of course, it depends on if he has fans who clamor for more.

Next is Earth. “Virgo” is at the editor’s also. I’m not thrilled with that story. I’m working on “Taurus” and it’s right now meandering into a long, drawn out, denial-of-love story that I hate. But maybe it’s one of those kinds of stories that others love.

Lastly, of course, is War Mage. Yes, I know–I can’t seem to get past getting things “right”. My initial thought about magic in the military is that they’re not utilizing it to its fullest extent. That mages have a high turnover because they’re in the front line. I keep thinking about the single star review saying, “There’s no story here except for the last twenty pages.” So I tried to make it a murder mystery instead. But it’s really hard for me to change one character from a non-trusting enemy to a steadfast friend. It’ll take a lot longer than 40K words to do it, and I’m not sure I have the patience. If I don’t have the patience, then neither will the reader.

At the moment, I have no other ideas. I kind of want to get out of the magical realism realm, but it’s what I know. I can easily write that kind of thing. In fact I just bought a couple of books on ceremonial (“high”) magic. It’s where my interests lie. I don’t want to make a Harry Dresden copy-cat, though there’s plenty of them around; and I allude to further adventures that Mike has in “Family Bonds”.

Maybe I will keep Grim alive.