Hey everyone!

So I doubt I’m the only one for whom the last three months have been the longest decade of their lives, so I just want to take a moment and spread some love, hugs, and support to everyone, everywhere, who are struggling right now. Though it may not feel like it at times, you are seen and loved.

On a more cheerful note, though my writing was on hiatus for the good part of two of those three months, I’m happy to say I’m closing in on getting the final edits for Vhantalya put to bed. I don’t have an official launch date yet, or a date when ARCs will be available, but I am trying really hard to get everything done and dusted and launched by May 16th.

Why? Well, I’m glad you asked! On the weekend of May 23rd I will be attending BookNetFest, in Orlando, Florida! I plan to bring a few copies of Vhantalya and Reboot along with me to give away, and I’m really looking forward into meeting several of you that will also be attending!

Given the state of…*waves at everything*, I have opted out of flying to Florida and will instead be taking a train. As this adds quite a bit of travel time to and from, and because I will have little to do on the train beyond stare broodingly out the window, get involved in a strange Victorian-style murder mystery, or read (or so I hear that’s how it happens when authors board trains), I have decided to bring my portable keyboard and knock out the first draft of one of my unstarted novels.

I have…a lot of those, so it took a little while to narrow down which one I wanted to go after, and I’ve finally decided on A Rat’s Honor.

I’m a pantser, and very often the idea is all I have in mind when I sit down to write, so keep that in mind when reading my summary below (things are very, very open to changing!). In my head this one contains shades of the Redwall series, The Rats of NIMH, the Tale of Despereaux, and Watership Down (still to this day my favorite book).

A group of rats that have been experimented on by a shadowy government agency find themselves alone in the rubble of a post-apocalyptic world (disease or zombie, I haven’t quite decided yet). Humans have disappeared, and strange threats howl in the night outside the walls that keep them safe. Far more intelligent than any wild rat thanks to the experiments, this colony have developed their own society, culture, mythology, and religion.

One young rat, Artmark Fleeker, breaks taboo and ventures into an area strictly off-limits to all but the colony’s spiritual leaders. There he discovers some human media, including tales of knights, dragons, sorcery, and chivalry, and determines that he wants nothing more in life than to be a knight.

For a while, all he can do is daydream and practice in secret, because if the others of his colony found out what he’d done he’d be cast out forever. Or worse!

Then one day he meets a new and unexpected friend, and when his colony and everyone he loves is threatened by foes both within and without, and their entire way of life is thrust into jeopardy, what he’s learned may be crucial not just to their evolution as a people, but their very survival.

It is only then that Artmark truly begins to understand how valuable honor is…even for a rat.

A Rat’s Honor. First draft coming to a train near you in May!