Looking back on 2012

The past year has been an important one for me as a novelist. From the start of the year, sales of the books in the Leonidas Trilogy moved steadily upwards, passing one critical milestone after another. On schedule, the third book, A Heroic King, was released September 15, and sales quickly surpassed anything I have experienced before. It, like the first two books in the series, has collected a small but growing number of positive reviews – none of which have been purchased and most of which were written by complete strangers. Thank you, all!!

Likewise, after a very slow start, sales of Where Eagles Never Flew started to pick up and reached respectable levels by the end of the year.  In contrast, the launch of Hitler’s Demons, the Kindle edition of my novel about the German Resistance (published in trade paperback as An Obsolete Honor), was disappointing. I can only hope that with time the quality of these books will enable them to win a following of readers.

For me, however, it is time to move on to a new project, a new period. Although I remain committed to writing a biographical novel of Edward of Woodstock (more commonly known as the Black Prince), I recognize that as long as I am carrying a full-time job in addition to my writing, I don’t have time for this massive project.  The biography of Edward requires more research, travel and above-all a dedicated website, none of which I can reasonably undertake any time in the foreseeable future.

Instead, I have chosen to rework a series of books written over the last couple of decades that were set in the 13^th Century. These include three novellas, set at least partially in the Languedoc and touching on the Albigensian crusade against the Cathers, a trilogy set on Cyprus during the first half of the 13^th Century and dealing with the baronial revolt against the Holy Roman Emperor, and my Templar Trilogy, which spans the period from the 7^th Crusade to the destruction of the Knights Templar in 1314.

The three novellas, which I refer to collectively as “Tales of the Languedoc,” will be published in installments on this website.  The first, “A Widow’s Crusdae,” appeared over the last nine weeks. The next, “The Devil’s Knight” will be introduced next week and then appear over twelve weeks starting January 19. The last in the series, “The Disinherited,” will be posted in the summer.

Meanwhile, I am working on revising – actually completely re-writing – the first book in the Templar Trilogy, with tentative plans to release it in trade paperback and Kindle editions in early 2014.

But that is far away, and now I want to thank you for following my blog, writing reviews, leaving comments on my website and occasionally sending me emails. I truly enjoy the exchange with my readers, and try to respond promptly to each communication I receive. I wish all of you the very best for 2013, and hope that you’ll keep reading my books, following my blog, and sending me feed-back.

Happy New Year!