Dark Arts: A Year Later

A year ago I made Dark Arts: Rising available for free through Smashwords. They distributed it to other eBook resellers, like Barnes and Noble. The reaction to the story there has been largely positive, and after downloads numbering in the thousands, there's one common criticism.

It's too short.

When this short novella was first presented here, it was an experiment. As a result it didn't get extensive editing, and it was only as long as it had to be to present the core concepts and characters. In all honesty, I didn't have time to write this as a full sized novel or trilogy because I was in the middle of writing the Spinward Fringe series.

The same fate has befallen the yet unreleased Sons of Brightwill, which sits half written on my hard drive. Spinward Fringe, and the hundreds of readers who follow that series, took priority. I don't have any regrets, I love writing in that universe and entertaining people.

Back to what's going on with Dark Arts. I wrote that experiment because there were characters, settings and events that I wanted to put down, the fact that I did so in a short cropped manner is really a result of time constraints. 2010 belongs to Spinward Fringe, then I'll be taking a break for a few months. During that break I'll be working on a new Dark Arts project, in which you'll find the characters already introduced. I'll either be expanding what I have into a full novel, or writing something new before or after the events that take place in Dark Arts: Rising.

I can tell you one thing for sure: When I'm finished, the people who are looking for more will get their wish granted in abundance. Ever since I finished the Dark Arts: Rising short I've been looking forward to getting back to it.

I'd like to thank the readers who took the time to enjoy this short, and for reviewing, emailing, and generally making your thoughts on it known. You've spoken, and I've heard you.

RL / LS