Yesterday, I finished fleshing out and polishing Cinderella Conspiracy, the sequel to Rapunzel Plan. Check out the first chapter.
Now, my imagination is going wild with the third book in the series, very likely unfolding in Australia. Be warned, this one might become the weirdest and funniest of the three. 
Working title: To Learn What Fear Was. Another Grimm and gritty–or giddy?–action adventure.
MuseItUp Publishing accepted my thriller Strays of Rio. Actually it’s been a few weeks already, but I wanted to wait with announcing it until I’d been officially accepted into the Muse community.
But wait, there is more. Double Dragon Publishing accepted Wind over Troubled Waters, the first book of the Higher Ground Series Francene and I co-wrote. What a year! A prime year: 43. Hey, I saw two shooting stars while I was still 43. I guess I should be watching out for more.
And today I’m 44. What better way to celebrate than with two publishing contracts. I’ll keep you posted as the release dates draw closer.
I’ve finished the first draft of the sequel to Rapunzel Plan. Working title Cinderella Conspiracy. Still needs a quite some work, mostly fleshing out since I always rush through first drafts in a fever. I hope to upload a well-polished first chapter very soon.
People keep asking how Francene and I write together, and sometimes I’m still amazed that it actually works.
Francene had already started work on the first book of the Higher Ground series when she invited me to join in. We knew each other through the Internet Writing Workshop and had critiqued each other’s novels.
She already had a rough outline for the first two books and character profiles. I liked what I saw, so I took over three of the six main characters. Guess what? Somehow these guys just ran away with me, changed their nature and actions. I thought Francene would kick me right out of the project. Instead, she played along. There’s nothing more inspiring than a cowriter who thwarts your character’s plans.
We wrote very fast and sent each scene to the other before she wrote the next one. We tried to keep the characters’ voices distinctive while we went over each other’s work constantly to keep the style consistent.
Francene lives near London and I’m in Nürnberg, Germany. With one hour time difference, I can sleep in a little, while Francene is an early bird.
We work well together, give respect and patience and sometimes send more than twenty e-mails a day. It’s really funny that we might quickly agree on killing off a character while we might take five e-mail exchanges to fix a line of dialogue.
Francene always claims she isn’t good with action scenes, but we did rub off on each other. She wrote a fantastic girl fight scene at a party after the mudfights in book one. And hey, I sometimes come up with really nice atmospheric descriptions nowadays.
Two years ago I didn’t believe I could work with someone else in such a productive and fun way.
After only two years, Francene Stanley and myself finished the fourth book in our Higher Ground series, a futuristic fantasy adventure.
Higher Ground is set in Corn World, Britland, after a great flood destroyed civilization as we know it. Only memories, broken articles, and derelict buildings speak of the past. Cerridwen, regularly dreams of scenes that make no sense to her–of cars, planes and other past technology. It’ll become her destiny to lead Britland into a better future through the powers of a moonstone ring.
Five remarkable people–clever Aron, strong Boris, wise Cerridwen, nature-attuned Trevly, and temptress Sasha–get caught up in this search for legendary Egyptian jewellery.
Curious? Read Chapter One.
I’ve finally uploaded the first chapter of Rapunzel Plan on the Fiction page. Enjoy and let me know what you think!
My hiking adventure set in the Alps formerly know as Autobahn Proven is now called Rapunzel Plan and I’m much tempted to write a sequel set in Tenerife: Cinderalla’s Ashes. I’ve got the whole story in my head, but that’s possibly what kept me from writing it so far. Little new to find out, except that it will be great fun to play with my old friends again: El, the tough manager, and Martin, the tour guide from hell. Only this time they share the same goals. Strangely enough that doesn’t make it any easier to achieve them.
I can’t believe it’s been almost a year since my last post, but I do have a good excuse. Apart from editing Autobahn Proven, I’ve co-written no less than a trilogy with Francene Stanley, a UK writer I met on the Internet Writing Workshop. Higher Ground is a futuristic action adventure with fantasy elements and next year we’re likely going to extend it. Maybe we’ll beat Douglas Adams with his five-book trilogy.
It’s New Year’s Eve and I’ve finished the first draft of Autobahn Proven at 51,000 words. Still need to add a few scenes that require more research and of course I’ve got to flesh it out some more. Things to look forward to in 2010.
As so often, my characters just took of with me. Now the thriller I intended to write has turned into an action comedy. I love it. Hopefully I won’t be the only one.
Some time soon, I’ll put up the first chapter. When I’m happy with it…
Happy New Year!
My Author’s Page at MuseItUp Publishing
Yahoo! Me and Strays of Rio are now listed at the MuseItUp Publishing website. I’m thrilled. Another step closer to a dream come true! Are you curious? Check it out!
Discovering it by accident sure brightened this rainy day.