Update: November 10, 2025:
Well, we actually made it and got Wings of Earth: Book Nine: Blood Cost up for preorder on schedule. We pulled the trigger on October 24th.
So where is it? (you might ask)
Uhm, that’s a really good question, and one we’ve been asking Amazon every day since we put it up for sale. It’s also one we haven’t gotten a good answer to yet. (They say it is a systemic problem affecting lots of authors who use their platform …. but that really doesn’t hold much air since we know several authors who HAVE managed to get their works published since we hit the button.) Needless to say, Ducky has been ripping her hair out for two weeks as she’s been slogging her way through the customer service people at Amazon.
See, here is how it normally works. We get the files all ready and upload them to Amazon and then we hit the publish button (that part of the process isn’t that complex). Then they take a day or two to review the files before they get it up on their site. Rarely does it take more than twenty-four hours to get through the process of them vetting a new book (we’ve done this lots of times and know how to make sure there aren’t any problems on our end). Once they have done that, the book goes live and everybody is happy.
But this time, our new book is hung somewhere in the digital machinery, and we are powerless to move it forward. the Zon has assigned it a product number (it’s called an AISN) but they haven’t put it up yet. We don’t know why, and their tech support people haven’t given us any answers other than to say that we’re not alone with this problem. So, we’re stuck in limbo waiting for Amazon to figure out what the hell is going on and get the damn book up on their site. (We can’t even back out of the process and start over, since that would tangle up our ability to publish future books to Amazon.)
So, I just want you to know, we did our part, and we’re waiting for an impossibly big company to recognize their responsibility and do its part. It is frustrating, but it is the nature of the publishing business (at least when we have to deal with a ponderously slow behemoth like the Zon). Hopefully, they’ll get it figured out soon.
I promise to keep you all updated as things progress, but in the meantime, here is a preview of the cover for the new book. Hope you like it.
Thank you all so much for your patience.
I’m back in the seat again with a bunch of new stuff happening. It feels good to be at my desk after such a long time away. I’m not going to bore everybody with the details about what took me away from here for so long, but let’s just say that being diagnosed with cancer is a big step up from what the last few years have been. (Yeah, that happened too)
I’m feeling pretty good now, and I have been busy writing, even though I haven’t been online. I’ve finished (as in completely written) the final EIGHT books in the Wings of Earth series, and once we get through some business house-cleaning, we’re going to be starting to release them (There are over 700,000 words in the new books, and we’re starting to work through the process of editing and formatting).
We’re also updating all the old covers with new artwork, so keep an eye out for them too (Some of them are already up on Amazon and the other retailers if you want to check them out… yep, we finally made the commitment to go wide in our marketing, which means that soon you’ll be able to find my books everywhere).
But if you’ve already picked them up, I’ve included some of the new artwork here so you can take a quick peek at a few of them.
We’re going to be updating everything on the website over the next several weeks too. If you want to hang out and watch the construction, you can keep up on what’s happening.
Unfortunately, one of the biggest issues we’re trying to fix is that my newsletter list has disappeared entirely. If you were on it, you should probably sign up again if you want us to keep you up to date. It’s another long story, but suffice it to say, a mailing list does not age well… kind of like me, I guess.
One last thing to mention. For those of you on the newsletter (or who get back on it by signing up) one of the novels I finished during my time away is another prequel to the Wings of Earth series that takes place just before the Olympus Dawn arrives at Starlight in Book One. Shadetree Witness gives a bit of background on what happened to the missing colony (without spoiling anything for those of you who haven’t read the whole series… and it also gives some important clues for those of you who have).
Right now, our plan is to make Shadetree Witness available exclusively as a gift for our newsletter subscribers. so resubscribe and then watch for that free book coming soon. 
My newsletters will be starting again in August, and we will be releasing Wings of Earth: Book Nine: Blood Cost in October.
Thanks for hanging in with me.
We’ll talk more soon,