On what am I working?
On what am I working?
My immediate focus is on getting a cover for GRIND: falling in love and coming of age in a capitalist hellscape, about 27-year-old, high school dropout Oliver as he navigates getting kicked out of his illegal loft housing and his daughter's tenth birthday, all while getting entangled in an extremely inappropriate workplace relationship.
More long-term, I've been working on a four-book series called Dogwood Chronicles, the working titles being Hound Fatale, Godseed, Gladefall, and Wicker Dragon. I've got the first drafts of books 1-3 already written and I plan on getting the first draft of book 4 done by the end of summer. This is the project of my heart, the bare bones of which came into being as early as 2009, and the very first version of which I wrote in 2017 (and then promptly scrapped for parts). Dogwood has gone by many names and many drafts and different outlines. I had an agent for an earlier version back in 2020-2021, but that version died on sub, and I can honestly say that's a huge relief. Only the title (Hound Fatale), the character names, and one scene are the same. I don't think I'll try to get an agent again, preferring the creative control of self pub, but I do have a WIP back-cover summary that could be used as a query:
In a modern-day fairytale where all the worst villains are human, who's going to save the Big Bad Wolf?
The powerful Donovan family’s wealth hinges on the once-a-year, multi-million-dollar sale of a Stupendous Dogwood, a tree with bioluminescent flowers. Kenzie’s parents were killed for researching the trees, leaving their daughters at the mercy of the Donovans. Kenzie attends the local college, while her sister is a ward of the dangerous family.
When Kenzie steals the key to the mine that holds the secret to the dogwood trees’ origins, she awakens the Hound, the first Donovan’s cursed fey servant. Though his beloved master is long dead, the Hound’s goals remain the same: return the key to the family estate so that he may resume his slumber in the mines, unburdened by heartache.
Neither Kenzie nor the Hound are prepared for Owen, who twelve years ago narrowly escaped being tithed as a feral child to the otherworld in a backwoods deal between Donovans and fey. Owen’s mettle fortifies Kenzie’s resolve to finish her parents’ research and save her sister, while his sweetness entrances the gatekeeper, delaying his search for the key. As the three work together to undo the Donovan crimes against humanity, nature, and fey, their discoveries force more of their own histories into the light, casting shadows of doubt on each other and reality itself.