Discovering it by accident sure brightened this rainy day.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!