A Duel with Odds and Ends
There will be a new book soon. Possibly even next week (waiting on edits and a cover). It’s the first book in a new Western series, so it will be under my Dan Winchester name. More about that when it hits the shelves.
As a writer with a number of pen names, I sometimes feel like I have multiple personality disorder. Last month, I meant to send out a note about the release of a book. Technically a re-release. It was originally published as part of a series called Guns of Legende under the shared pen name Brody Weatherford. The other authors focused on two characters in particular, and those characters did not appear in the book I wrote. Why? Well, originally, another writer friend of mine was going to write books in that series, and he was going to have his own characters, too. Alas, he was crushing deadlines and didn’t get to the book. That meant my book stood out because, like in Sesame Street, one of these things was not like the others. The authors are going to revamp the series, and as mine doesn’t fit their direction, I agreed to pull it.
Since my other westerns were written as Dan Winchester, I made the necessary changes to pull out the few Guns of Legende characters and references I’d used. That was so easy it only took a couple of hours. Once that was done, I put together a cover (yes, I did the cover myself) and re-released it. So Gary Jonas wrote a Brody Weatherford book and later put it out as a Dan Winchester book. You can see why the MPD label is so applicable.
Anyway, now that Duel in Dodge City is a Dan Winchester title, I figured I should at least mention it here. I had fun writing the book, and when I reread it to make those changes, I enjoyed it all over again. The duel mentioned in the title features the pistols Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr used in their infamous duel. Spoilers, I know, but I love it. If you haven’t read Duel in Dodge City this is a great time to check it out. Click on the title or the cover to get there.
The reviews for the book went away with the new release. I could have asked Amazon to move them over, but as some of the reviews mentioned the series, I thought it might be confusing. The book will just have to get new reviews. Right?
A few other things worth mentioning. First, while I am writing a new Western series, I’ve also started working on a new fantasy series. If one book doesn’t flow, I can turn to the other. You’ll know it was a bad idea to try writing two books at once if a dragon shows up in the Western.
Second, this morning a reader wrote to me asking about the reading order of the Jonathan Shade and Kelly Chan novels. Fortunately, I’d answered that question several years ago on Goodreads, so I was able to look it up. I know, I know. But I’ve written a lot of books. I can’t keep them all straight. I figured I’d share the chronological order here for those who might be interested, and I’ll try to make time to add it to my website.
Read the Shade series through Razor Dreams (Shade 7) then Vampire Midnight (Kelly 1), go back to Shade for Vertigo Effect and Club Eternity (Shade 8 & 9) then back to Kelly for Werewolf Samurai (Kelly 2), Timeless Gods (Shade 10), Subhuman Resources and Zombie Rising (Kelly 3 & 4), Immortal Ascendant (Shade 11), Vendetta Blues (Kelly 5) then finish out the Shade series. Since Kelly also appears in Fugitive Wizard, you can tuck that in between Wicked Shadows and Juju Justice.
Naturally, I tried to write them so they can be read on their own, but there you go.
Third, because following the Rule of Three is always good, I’ll answer a few more reader questions. One reader asked if there would be more Damon Chase novels. I started the second book, but sales on Fugitive Wizard were … what’s the word I’m looking for? Oh, right. Terrible. Proof of that is that only one reader has ever asked about more books. Ha! When I can afford to take the financial hit, I may write the other two books. We’ll see. After David Grusch spoke to Congress about UFOs, several of you asked if I’d write a followup to Guardians of the Sky. I’d love to do that too, but that novel never found its audience either. My bank account has told me to focus on my pen names because they’ll make more money than my real name. Of those, I’ll talk about Dan Winchester here because that name isn’t a secret.
If all goes well, you’ll read about the next Dan Winchester book next week. Meanwhile, have a great weekend!