Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you know that work is continuing on my next novel. It’s a continuation of The Good Killers, tentatively titled “They Also Breathe Fire,” and so it will feature Ben Rossi, Riley Lopez, and new characters, as well as some old favorites.
Based on feedback from you and from marketing research that I've been doing I've decided to give a more prominent role to Riley Lopez. If you remember, she is the Iroquois County deputy who has a close relationship with Ben and plays a key role in the events of the first novel. I also really enjoy writing Riley’s character.
The Ben Rossi series is meant as a reader alternative to the Terry Perez series. It’s meant for people who are looking for something darker. The series is about an ex-soldier who capitalizes on his military training to infiltrate and smash apart international crime syndicates. In contrast, the Terry Perez series (which starts with My Favorite Suspects) has more low-key stakes and is about a guy who works in a supermarket and solves small-town crimes with his friends, who have the awkward tendency of showing up as suspects in his investigations.
I'm at the stage where I'm working on plot and mapping out all the story events before, during, and after the novel. I'm looking at dramatic questions and doing other planning such as figuring out settings. Most importantly, I'm doing research that will help me define the backstory and in-novel motivations and goals for the existing and new characters. I'm also capturing anecdotes and sketches, and snippets of dialogue, as they come to me during the day so that I can integrate these ideas into what I already have. If you remember, I have a novella-length version of this book that I am working on bumping out to novel length. It will probably be as long as the first book in the series (which is about 300 pages.) At least it won't be any longer than that since 300 pages seems to be a limit for the genre.
In the meantime, here’s another artwork teaser for the novel:
See you on Notes!
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