Writing Update

For anyone who didn’t notice, I published Knight’s Haven a few weeks ahead of the intended release date. Thank you to all the nice people who pre-ordered the book. Book 5 in the series, The Library of Anukdun is at about eighty percent of a first draft. It’s already climbing towards ninety thousand words, which isn’t long for an adult fantasy novel, but is (not counting a few very popular outliers), quite long for an upper middle grade or young, young adult novel. My original intent was to write a series that was comparable in size to the Chronicles of Narnia—this one is looking to end up at more of a Lord of the Rings length. I’m not pushing past my seven book limit, so… they’re getting longer. I subscribe to the theory that a book should be as long or as short as it takes to be a good book. For reference: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe weighs in at 36,360 words, Ivy’s Tangle at 37,901, and Knight’s Haven ended up at 63,595.  I expect the last three books will, based on what needs to happen in each, be longer.
I’m also working through my backlog of children’s books, whenever I need a break from Jack and Ivy. The First Puddlegineer should be out early in the new year. It’s a silly story about a five-year-old named Jeremy Buttons. This is the blurb as of now:

Puddlegineers straddle the border between the arcane science of mudology and the more widely accepted field of civil engineering.
Jeremy Buttons is looking forward to a fun, relaxing summer vacation, but when he falls asleep beside a puddle, and wakes up as small as an ant, things become complicated.
Armed only with a bright blue shovel, a plastic bucket, and limited determination, Jeremy must stand squarely in the path of progress to save the people of the Puddle Lands from uncertain doom.
A cookie-stealing babysitter, a tiny dog, and an early bedtime conspire against him.
Jeremy will prove that anyone can be hero… even if they sometimes wet the bed.