I just passed 90,000 words in my work in progress, Glory Boy. The way the plot is progressing, I expect it to take about another 20,000 words to wrap up.
This novel is the story of the wartime experiences of Caleb Mitchell, the main character in the Birthright trilogy, so one might naturally assume that I’m going to market it as a prequel to Birthright.
But I’m not, at least not at first. As it is, it’s a fine standalone military science fiction novel and I’m of the opinion that it will probably sell better if I market it that way than if I connect it to an existing trilogy.
So I am going to start out by selling this as a standalone and then maybe after few months, I’ll add something to the blurb that mentions the Birthright trilogy.
Just wanted to let everyone who follows my work regularly know what’s going on with Glory Boy.
The Ambien Walrus Wrote My Book
StandardSo last night, I was all ready for bed, and I’d taken my nightly dose of Ambien. I’ve had a prescription for a while since I can’t sleep through the night without it and I have to be up early for work. Usually, I take it then hit the sack no more than 20 minutes later. But this time, I was just a couple hundred words from 50,000 in the new science fiction book I’m writing, and even though I’d taken the pill a half hour ago, I figured I could squeeze in a little extra writing. 50,000 words is a big milestone to pass when you’re writing a book, and I only started working on this one three weeks ago so it’s been going pretty fast and I wanted to keep up that pace.
I woke up this morning having no memory whatsoever of anything I wrote last night. I opened up my laptop and I’d gone like 200 words over 50,000 and ended the chapter I’d been working on. And it was pretty good! I’m tempted to say it was better than some of the stuff I’ve written not on Ambien in some ways.
Hmmm…I’m tempted now to take one on a weekend night when I don’t have to get up early the next morning and just stay up and write and see what the results are in the morning. That would be interesting…

Giveaway of Birthright
StandardMy next book and how I’m writing it…
StandardEnemy of My Enemy
StandardEnemy of My Enemy is out!
StandardThe book is available now for download on Kindle from Amazon!
Enemy of My Enemy is out!
StandardEnemy of My Enemy is DONE!
StandardJUST finished Enemy of My Enemy! Still have a couple weeks worth of proofreading to do, but it should be available on Amazon by the end of the month!
So glad to be finished with this thing…
Official plot description for Enemy of My Enemy
StandardHere’s the plot description for Birthright Book 3: Enemy of My Enemy–
Caleb Mitchell, Deke Conner and Kara McIntire return in the latest novel in the star-spanning Birthright series. Travelling back from their mission to the Northwest Passage, having closed off that corridor into our part of space to alien invasion, Cal Mitchell and his friends are now faced by a threat closer to home.
When the former DSI commando Robert Chang, known as Cutter, had deceived them into helping him find the legendary Northwest Passage, he’d used all of his resources for his set-up—including replacing a few key military officers with genetically duplicated copies made in his lab and under his control. Cutter is gone, but his organization remains…and so do the replacements.
Now, someone Cutter left behind is using those replacements in an attempt to reignite the war between the human Commonwealth and the Tahni Empire. Tahni insurgents have launched terrorist strikes against the Commonwealth military, initiating a cycle of reprisal and escalation, spurred on by the duplicates in the military. When Cal, Deke and Kara bring together what remains of their old Glory Boy commando group in an effort to investigate, they’re attacked by both sides. It will take all their skill to overcome the conspiracy and expose the ones behind it.
And to convince the Tahni that the enemy of their enemy is not necessarily their friend…
Cover for Enemy of My Enemy
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Science fiction illustration of a group of alien battle robots defending a bridge, 3d digitally rendered illustration.