If you read my previous blog post, you’ll know that I was planning to begin work on my fifth Taesia novel. I won’t go into detail about why, but I have decided instead to work on a different book project I’ve been thinking about for several years but have been putting off.

I intend to return to the world of Taesia after this project is completed.

This new book will be called Second Citizen and it is a work of contemporary fiction, taking place in the real world. The story focuses on a young television reporter dispatched from the big city to investigate a shooting in a small rural town in ranch country.

This is a story of culture clashes and the different, highly polarized views about gun ownership in America. Underneath it all, however, it is a story about the common values we all share as human beings.

I have been burning to write this story for quite a while now and the compulsion to complete it has become great enough that my next Taesia story can take a temporary back seat until Second Citizen is completed.

This is a genre departure for me, but I’m far from famous enough for it to be a problem. Could you imagine if Stephen King wrote a romance novel? Scandal! He’d have to write it three pen-names deep. I’m not burdened by that kind of career inertia, thankfully.

Second Citizen is a story that needs to be told, and I am compelled to tell it.

I hope you enjoy it. Stay tuned.