Where I've Been and What I'm Up To

It’s been busy here at Castle Schadenfreude, so I thought I’d catch my loyal cadre of readers up on what’s going on. If one of you reads this and doesn’t think the other has seen it, please pass it along.

• Of course, the big news is the new deal with Down and Out Books. Signed contracts are ensconced in my desk and covers come closer to fruition as I type this. The current plan is for Worst Enemies and Grind Joint to come out later this year, with the third and as yet unseen Penns River novel, Resurrection Mall due in the spring of 2017. I don’t have more precise dates yet, but neither of you should worry: it’s not like it’ll be a secret.
• The fourth Nick Forte PI story, A Dangerous Lesson, will release later this month or, more likely, in early May. (This is a Kindle/CreateSpace deal, so a lot depends on how busy I am.) Forte’s descent into darker places continues as he fouls up an investigation into the worthiness of a young woman’s suitor, then becomes unwittingly tangled in a spectacular serial killer case. A Dangerous Lesson completes the backlog of Forte stories written before his guest appearance as the badass cousin to Penns River cop Ben Dougherty in Grind Joint. More on this as the release date approaches.
• Last week saw the completion of the fifth Forte tale. Bad Samaritan is the first Forte story to take place after the events of Grind Joint. Forte gets caught up in the men’s rights movement and inadvertently mixed up with a couple of characters from previous books in a way that shows him how limited his sphere of influence is, no matter his intentions.
• Plotting is afoot for the next Penns River story, with the working title of PR-5. (I have no idea what the title is going to be. Not a whisper. It’s file folder is labeled PR-5 because there is a fourth Penns River book queued up and ready to go.) This will be a more complex story in the hopes of showing how a town the size of Penns River can get overwhelmed by what’s not really a great deal of exceptional crime, and, I hope, give a little more detail into how the people live.
• Of course, Bouchercon in September. In New Orleans, no less.
• Then, just a couple of weeks later, I’m appearing at the Creatures, Crime, and Creativity Conference in Columbia MD. C3 is a relatively new conference that’s already making a distinguished footprint. This year’s featured authors are Reed Farrel Coleman and Alexandra Sokoloff.

Thanks to everyone who stops by. Your attention and comments keep this blog going, as not even I would type into a void. Anybody who wants to ask a question or suggest something for the blog, please leave a comment below, or send an email to DanaKingCrime@gmail.com and I promise to get back to you. It’s one of the perks of not hitting the bestseller lists: I have time for personal interaction with my dozens of fans.