THE THREE BOOKS ALWAYS ON A NOVELIST’S MIND

If the subject matter of this blog looks familiar, it’s because you read it in my newsletter a couple of months ago. Yes, I believe in plagiarism—as long as it’s my own stuff.

So let’s jump into it. It’s been said, I’m not sure by whom, that a novelist typically has three books at a time on his/her mind.  

First, there’s the book that just came out. In my case, that would be WHEN HEROES FLEW: WHERE THE DAWN COMES UP LIKE THUNDER. It launched in February and is doing well. I think the recognition I’m proudest of is that it’s earned 4.6-star ratings on both Amazon and Goodreads.  (BTW, more than a few readers have mentioned to me it’s great to have Rod and Eve back, first introduced in THE ROOF OF THE WORLD. I love those two characters. But I digress.)

The second book always on a novelist’s mind—this is kind of obvious—is the book he or she is currently working on. In my case, that would be the one I just handed off to my publisher (Severn River Publishing) a few weeks ago. WHEN HEROES FLEW: BLACK THURSDAY is now in their queue for marketing and publication. That process takes awhile, so you won’t be able to read BLACK THURSDAY until February 2026.  But you can preorder it now.  (And just to put in a little plug for it, a beta reader who’s been with me since my debut novel in 2011 said of it: “Even though all the books in the ‘When Heroes Flew’ series are very good, I was especially ‘touched’ by this latest installment . . . .”)

Finally we get to book number three. Most novelists always have their “next” book (number three) rolling around in their head, even while they’re churning out their current baby. In my case, I’ve done a lot of research on number three, scribbled quite a few notes, and have just molded my thoughts into a broad outline of what I think will be an engaging tale. I can tell you it will be different from all the other novels in my WHEN HEROES FLEW group, in that there will be no flying scenes in it. (So, standalone novel, I suppose.) There will, however, be a tremendous amount of tension in it. Oh, and a little romance, too. Overall, I’ll be telling the story of a huge but little known challenge that had to be overcome before launching the greatest military operation in history.

The working title of the novel is FIVE DAYS IN JUNE. I wonder what that could be about.