I didn’t win this year’s National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo, meaning I didn’t complete 50,000 new words for a story. However, I did do exactly what I set out to do. I got myself focused and tuned up the skills I’ve learned in the past to fire up the word engine.

I’ve been working on a new story that I’m currently calling CONFLICTED. It’s a psychological thriller with an urban noir feel. I am heavily into the characterization and back-story right now and, although the theme and protagonist are going to be challenging, I am liking what I have.

The story is again set in South East Asia and I’ll have a big variety of people, settings and customs. I love the research I get into for my stories and can spend hours learning about something that might not warrant more than a few sentences overall. But hopefully, the research makes each sentence ring true and creates authenticity for the readers.

Even though I’m dying to throw words out there, I’m trying to live by a new rule for this next book. The rule is, don’t show anyone your words until the entire first draft is complete. That will be a challenge for me, because I’m not that kind of person, in general, but I’m going to give it a try for now.

I’m also expecting this book to be significantly longer than the last three and I’m about 10% of the way through the first draft.

Look forward to a second half 2018 publish date!