Older notes are now at the bottom.

Update - January 1, 2018 -  Happy New Year! It seems that lately I have only been updating this page  at the first of the year. That is probably because most of my other updates get posted on my Wordpress blog. That one even has pictures... once in a while and you might also enjoy the audiobook reviews I post there too. The new book out just today is the latest volume of the A Plethora of Deities series, which in spite of the title has nothing to do with Cthulhu. I'm not sure if anyone seriously worships Cthulhu and his pals, but so far at least I have resisted using them in any of my stories and will for the forseeable future. Speaking of which I am currently plotting the next book in that series, but so far I have not got a name for it or at least not one I like, so just call it The Unamed Plethora of Deities Project for now. That will not be the next story I write, however. In a few days I intend to finally start Book 1 of  Tales of a Dyslexic Wizard: Spelling Disabled.  I have finished the rough draft of  Inspired Dreams, which is the third volume of Gaenor's Prophecy I hope to have that available for both download and in paper format early this summer.

A Plethora of Deities

Update - March 28, 2008 - I just finished Teasing the Furies and to my happy surprise it not only led me to the next story, Inspiring the Muses but no doubt tickled the muses into inspiring me with an idea for a related series: Dancing with the Sphinx. All I'll say about that for now is that I used the Sphinx on a whim in this latest book and decided I liked her so much she deserved the Plethora of Deities treatment as well.

Update - January 1, 2008 - Tempting the Fates is now available for download.

Update - October 7, 2007 - I'm currently proof-reading Tempting the Fates and just putting the finishing touches on Teasing the Furies' plot. For those who may be interested Tempting the Fates will revolve around Inanna and her new boyfriend, but the usual cast of characters will make their appearances as well. Teasing the Furies will be a slight departure from what has become the  formula of most of the rest of the series and will feature, not a mortal suddenly surrounded by gods, but a young and confused demoness (a fury, in fact) who is just trying to find her place.

Update - July 7, 2007 - The first four books of this series are now available at www.lulu.com/jonathan27 and Book Five, Tempting the Fates is now being proofed. I also have an idea for a sixth story, Teasing the Furies that may get written sometime in 2008. I have another title in mind, Inspiring the Muses, but at the moment that's all it is, a title.

Update - June 19, 2006 - I've just started the second (my first) proof-reading pass on The Tree. I'm planning to alternate between this story and A Fine Adventure a side story from from Ars Nova Magica, so I'm not sure which will be ready first.

Update - April 19, 2006 - The rough draft of The Tree is finished but I haven't read it yet, so I'm not sure how good it is. Looking forward to it, though!

Update - March 6, 2006 - I plan to start The Tree tomorrow sometime.

Update - January 1, 2006 - The Seed is now available and I plan to write  the sequel The Tree sometime this spring.

Update - June 27, 2005 - I'm going to have to stop calling this a not-series, I think.  With the third story The Seed, the first two have become more closely connected. Along with telling what I hope is an interesting story, I managed to resolve some issues involved in the differences between the first two stories, such as why is there magic for mortals in the  first book but somehow it doesn't get mentioned in the second. I also managed to state the nature of the deities in this series in a manner I was more comfortable with in the first and totally avoided in the second. Anyway, I got nearly to the end of the story and just before writing the final scene, I realized I was about to jump forward over six months.  Surely, there must have been something of note happening during that period. So I wrote a different ending; a sort of "To be Continued" sort of ending and am now plotting a sequel; The Tree, in which an almost entirely new set of bad guys will be moving against my heroes and in nearly entirely new ways. So with four books written or planned, I think this has grown into a full-fledged series.

Update - May 21, 2005 - The new story now has a name; The Seed, and I plan to start writing it this week

    Update - April 1, 2005 - It's been twelve or more years since I wrote In the Sky With Diamonds, the second book in this... well, I don't think of it as a series, it's just that the books have the same lot of supporting characters, but the connection is more tenuous than in my other series. While preparing for this year's garden, I came up with an idea that tickled me. A lot of seed companies give away free seeds when you buy from them. What if, one of those seeds had come from the Tree of Life? For a while that was all I had, but then I decided that the odd gods from this non-series would be perfect, so I sat down and plotted this one. The only question is just when I'll get to writing it.

  Older Notes:

    March 11, 2004

        I'm not particularly fond of blogs. Last I heard, "Blog" was an party punch of unknowable ingredients so I must be getting old. Anyway, I plan to use this space to give readers a heads-up on what I'm currently working on although without spoilers.

        With the posting of Elf Alert! I now have all nine of the novels I wrote in the early 90's ready for download. Consequently, the new stuff will be a bit slower in coming. However, I generally write three book-length works each year so it won't be all that slow, just slower than it has been so far. However there are several projects in various stages of readiness even now.

    June 14, 2004

    Down Time is now available for download.

    August 2, 2004

    Gods of the Air is now available for download. I've also surprised myself by writing another Maiyim story (a short story this time - see below). It's been a strange couple of months, but while hectic it's been mostly good especially for writing. I received a very nice letter from a reader this month who asked me to stop saying that while the books posted here are free and you get what you pay for, so I will. It was only a joke, but one that obviously didn't go over well. I'll try to stop making fun of my own work. That's going to be hard, but I'll try anyway <g>.

    December 4, 2004

    The Rainbow of Dusk is now available for download. It's been a few months since I last posted one of my books. Between now and the second week of January I hope to be able to post one or two more.

January 1, 2005

    Happy New Year!  Wow! I want to thank everyone who has been downloading these stories lately. Considering I have done nothing to advertise this site I was fairly impressed a year ago when I was averaging over one hundred downloads each month. However over the past year the word must be getting out (Google and Yahoo! were prime reasons, but a dozen over web search services have picked the site up too) and by last August I was averaging over one hundred downloads per week. However, December, 2004 broke all previous records and as of 1 AM of December 31 there had been 925 downloads since the first of the month. The largest bulk of those downloads took place during Chanukah, so thanks for the Chanukah gift!

    Regular readers know that rather than ask for money for myself I usually suggest various charities you may consider donating a dollar to two to. With the recent devastation in the areas surrounding the Indian Ocean, instead of those listed in the books, might I suggest sending a donation to one of the accredited charities that are collecting for disaster relief for the people who have been affected by the earthquakes and tsunamis? There are quite a few of them to choose between from the American Red Cross to The Jewish Federation of Greater New Bedford (which I mention in the forewords of some of my stories). Remember when donating to specify that you want your donation to go toward the relief of the 2004 tsunami victims of the Indian Ocean area.

    I've just posted Taking Time. There's not too much else new since my last note a month ago.  I finished proof reading the Three Stories of Maiyim as separate files. Now I'm working on them as a combine e-book. I'm having some technical difficulties at the moment, mostly regarding hyperlinks, although on the latest re-read I'm also finding a few other issues I'd like to clean up. It should be ready this spring. Also, The Maiyim Bourne has survive it's first pass through the proof reading process and I have full-fledged plot outlines for Book Four of Gaenor's Quest: The Cold, Clear Skies of Midnight and Book Three of the Down Time, Ltd. series which at the moment I'm calling Time Out.

 April 1, 2005

    Happy April Fools Day! No tricks or japes from this quarter, but I am posting the Three Stories of Maiyim today.

    Quite a bit has happened since I last updated this site. I finished the final volume of Gaenor's Quest; The Cold Clear Skies of Midnight in record time, which was somewhat amazing considering a prolonged bout with the flu which left me too disoriented to write as much as I would have liked combined with my Mom breaking her hip (while sick from that same flu, evidently this was the strain going around this year's flu shots had no effect on), which kept me visiting her in the hospital during most of my free time. On the other hand, that did give me plenty of time to catch up on proof reading.

    Also with the extra time I gained by finishing "Midnight" so quickly, I came up with yet another idea for a story and got it plotted (see A Plethora of Deities).

        May 21, 2005 - Just posted The Maiyim Bourne. And I'll be starting in on The Seed this week. Also, with Gaenor's Quest concluded I've started planning a new series in an entirely new world; see The Wayfarers below. Just to warn everyone, there's is likely to be a bit of a gap before I post the next book, The Cold, Clear Skies of Midnight, not because I'm behind on my proofreading but because I've managed to get ahead. However, by having done so, I now have two stories (Midnight and Time Out) to proofread. Midnight is just past it's first proofing and Time Out has just started on the first pass, and I subject all stories to at least four readings before I post them. However, that still means that those stories will be posted on time and may well be posted very near to one another. They just aren't likely to be early.    I  also note that these update notes are starting to get long and very stale. I suppose I'll have to start pruning out someof the old ones soon.

June 27, 2005 - Nothing new posted because I'm currently writing faster than I'm proof-reading. I just finished the rough draft for The Seed (see A Plethora of Deities below) and got a bit of a surprise when I realized while the story I plotted was complete, it was really only half the story. I won't get around to writing that half of the story until next spring and, in fact I'm still plotting it. I still plan to write The Staff of Aritos this fall, and  A Land Without Borders over the winter.

August 24, 2005 - The Cold, Clear Skies of Midnight is now available for download. Enjoy! I'm still proofing Time Out and The Seed, but I hope to start writing The Staff of Aritos within the week.

October 15, 2005 - The speed at which I'm writing is getting increasingly fast, which will no doubt, be a let down next time I try something and it comes out at a more normal speed. Anyway, I've finished the rough draft of  The Staff of Aritos and hope to start proofing it soon. Meanwhile it appears to have spawned an idea for yet another "A Story of Maiyim" which will be called A Promising Career and will feature a new character from The Staff of Aritos, but I don't want to give anything away just yet. Also while writing Staff I found a continuity error in An Interesting Title in which King Ksaveras IX refers to his father Ksaveras X. Since this is not the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy  and his family did not suffer a mistake involving a contraceptive and a time machine, I decided to correct the problem and recompiled the book. The corrected version is now up. I found a few typos in the earlier Maiyim series, but while I made corrections to my copies, I haven't posted those yet. Eventually...

November  7, 2005 - Time Out is now available for download. Enjoy! I'm about to start writing A Promising Career and looking forward to it. Also check out the new colorized maps of Gaenor's World. They're neat!

January 1, 2006 - Happy New Year, everyone! 2005 is going to be a tough act to follow as I managed to write five new e-books over the course of the year. The Seed is now available for download and I'm deep into proof-reading mode for both The Staff of Aritos and A Promising Career. I actually wrote that second one in a single week, but no, I do not know how I managed it. It just happened that way. I intend to start writing the first book of The Wayfarers either this week or next (depending on how I feel after New Year's Day (I do not expect a hangover (I don't drink to excess except as a toast), but I am hosting an all day movie marathon, so that is bound to leave me a bit wasted, or it might energized me... We'll see.

January 8, 2006 - I just posted a small but important correction to In the Sky With Diamonds. No one pointed it out to me, or I'd have made the correction sooner, but in the original I cast Pele, the Hawaiian volcano goddess as a male deity. Sure would hate to incur her wrath because of that next time I'm strolling on the slopes of Mauna Loa...

March 6, 2006 - The Staff of Aritos is now available for downloading.

April 19, 2006 - I've updated the look of this site. Admittedly it was a small change, but I was really getting a bit tired of the old theme. This one is bright and cheerful and will probably only last until I can find one that looks like it was designed by Charles Addams <g>. Actually, I'd love that, but then my cell phone's ring-tone is Tom Lehrer singing "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park." (seriously!) A Promising Career is now available. News on A Land Without Borders and The Tree and other projects can be found below.

June 4, 2006 - I'm busily proof reading A Land Without Borders while working on the plot for a sequel to Agree to Disagree which is tentatively entitled By the Light of the Silvery Moons. Also in the pile to proof is The Tree and A Fine Adventure and I hope to start writing Show Time! very shortly. So why am I updating this? Take a look at the logo below;
  Readers of the later Maiyim stories may recognize this as uncomfortably close to the symbol used by the nefarious One Maiyim conspiracy. So imagine my surprise when this started showing up on quite a few signs in the area in which I live. Is One Maiyim on to me? Actually, this is the corporate logo of Atlantic Retail Properties, a real estate development company. Of course, one never really knows...

June 18, 2006 - A Land Without Borders  is now available for downloading.

June 24, 2006 - I've just posted a new page which I hope to eventually fill with links to other author's sites that I like. First up on the list is the site of Moshe Harel, who was nice enough to colorize the maps that accompany the Maiyim and Gaenor stories. He has written and published a book, The Last Room. It deals with a number of fascinating issues regarding human and alien cultures and the interaction between them. Click here to visit my "Other Writers" page.

August 25, 2006 - The Tree is now available for download. A longtime friend has requested I bring Elf Alert! into print as soon as possible, so that's just what I'm working on. This one's for you, Cat! Hmm, and I didn't even realize you'd been reading any of my books <g>. I plan to publish it at the same time as A Study in Ethnology and maybe I'll throw in Off on a Tangent at the same time to complete the publication of my non-series stories.

August 5, 2006 - A Fine Adventure is now available for download. I tried to write it as a children's story, but I'm not sure how close to the mark I came. It may be more like a story for adults who want to read a children's story. However, it was fun to write and hopefully will be just as fun to read.

July 23, 2006 - For those who have been asking when I'd be able to offer my books in print, the answer is, "Now." I have just finished the publishing process for Agree to Disagree at Lulu.com. My storefront there is www.lulu.com/jonathan27 Why did I start with that one? I'm not really sure. Most likely because it's been on my mind since I plotted the sequel (see my entry for June 4, 2006). Sadly I can't offer the printed books for free, but I did try to minimize the cost through my choice of format - Strangely a "Trade Paperback" format was cheaper than a standard pocketbook. Go figure! Next up, I plan to finish formatting the volumes of Gaenor's Quest before leaving on vacation in two weeks. Then, gradually, I plan to do the others as well. That's going to take some time as it is both time consuming and the cost of publication on demand can really eat into your wallet when you have as many books to convert as I have. Actually Lulu's basic service is free, but I want copies of my own books too, if only to proof them before offering them for sale. However, if there's a story you would really like to see in print let me know and I'll move that title or titles to the top of my queue.

October 31, 2006 - Not much new at the moment. I finished The Tears of Methis  about three weeks ago and naturally it sparked another side story idea, which I'm calling Freshman Orientation. Before I write that, however, I'm plotting the fourth and final novel of the Ars Nova Magica series, The Book of Candle. And of course, once again I have another idea for a completely different Maiyim series. This is not really new. I had an idea for a third Maiyim Series even as I thought up the second. I still don't have a name for it or any of the stories, but I do have a general idea of where those stories will go and who will be in them. Plenty of time for that ahead, though as I probably won't start writing any of them for nearly two years. Other news I'm still proofing Show Time! but it should be ready to post before the end of the year.

December 12, 2006 - It's been a while since my last update here, but I've been busy. The books of the Maiyim Tetralogy are now available in genuine dead-tree format at www.lulu.com/jonathan27 Meanwhile. Both The Tears of Methis and Freshman Orientation are being proofread and I'm on the last pass of Show Time! I hope to post that last sometime before the end of this month.

February 16, 2007 - I'm sorry to announce that my next release, The Tears of Methis will be a bit late due to hold ups in the proof-reading process. It is quite likely that sometime later this year it will come out with Freshman Orientation hot on its heels. On the other hand, I am more than keeping up with my writing schedule and I have finished the rough draft of A World Without a Name and am busily plotting  A Nation Without Maps. Sometime next month I hope to start in on the long-awaited sequel to Agree to Disagree; By the Light of the Silvery Moons. I still haven't  decided what to do immediately after that, however.

January 1, 2007 - Happy New Year! Show Time! is now available for download. Hope you enjoy it. I think it's the most fun of that series so far. I'm about to start writing the second of The Wayfarers series and at the moment I'm working on fleshing out ideas for the third Maiyim series, Ars Scientiaque Magicae although I'm not likely to start in on that until some time in 2008. In 2007, my planned projects include the long-coming sequel to Agree to Disagree,  By the Light of the Silvery Moons and the finale of  Ars Nova Magica which will be named The Book of Candle. I'd also like to write either another Plethora of Deities or Down Time, Ltd. story, plus I have an idea for at least one connecting story between the second and third Maiyim series tentatively entitled, Dry Dock. So I guess I have a busy year ahead.

March 18, 2007 - I have just opened a Windows Live Space account ( http://jefeinstein.spaces.live.com )no so much to share my deepest innermost thoughts with billions of strangers but because the blog feature includes an RSS (that stands for "Really Simple Syndication") feed so interested people can get automatic announcements when I post something new either here or at Lulu ( www.lulu.com/jonathan27 ). This is a feature I wanted to add here for a few months, but my hosting service does not offer RSS feeds in my current package. Lulu.com also provides RSS feeds to the blogs there and I've set one up there as well, but I'm not sure if the Lulu feed works automatically for future entries or just the ones currently posted. Feel free to subscribe to either or both.

    On other stuff: I continue to proof The Tears of Methis and Freshman Orientation as fast as I can and hope to have them both ready by June. I'm also considering which books to publish at Lulu next so if anyone has a preference please let me know. I have an idea for a new A Plethora of Deities story called Tempting the Fates which I plan to write early this summer. Finally, I plan to start writing By the Light of the Silvery Moons in a couple of days. Busy busy...

May 2, 2007 - The Tears of Methis and Freshman Orientation are now available for download. I recently finished the rough draft of By the Light of the Silvery Moons and hope to start proof-reading A World Without a Name very soon. Meanwhile I'm currently gearing up to start writing Tempting the Fates later this month and I hope to get another few books formatted and available in print at lulu.com but I'm not sure which yet.

    July 7, 2007 - I have just posted A World Without a Name for download. Also I'm not sure if I mentioned it here, (I can't find the entry, but I may have deleted it by accident) but the first four books of A Plethora of Deities were recently released at www.lulu.com/jonathan27 I know I mentioned them on my blog there and at http://jefeinstein.spaces.live.com. Speaking of A Plethora of Deities the fifth book, Tempting the Fates is now undergoing the first pass of proofreading and the second book of The Terralano Venture, By the Light of the Silvery Moons is currently on pass three of four. I also just finished formatting some more books for sale at Lulu.com, but have not yet received my proof copies for the final pass on them. As always those who are interested can receive news of my releases via RSS feeds at my Lulu and Live Spaces sites.

October 7, 2007 - I have just posted By the Light of the Silvery Moons (Book two of The Terralano Venture) and am in the second stage of proofing Tempting the Fates (the fifth volume of A Plethora of Deities). Also I just finished the rough draft of the final story in the Ars Nova Magica series: The Book of Candle. I know there are people waiting especially for that one, and I'll get it ready to post as soon as I can.
     So what's next? In November I intend to write Dry Dock, a story of Maiyim and then in January I'll start in on The Wayfarers: A Nation Without Maps and after that another of the A Plethora of Deities Series: Teasing the Furies. As always those who are interested can receive news of my releases via RSS feeds at my Lulu and Live Spaces sites.

January 31, 2008 - I've revamped the web site because the  home page was a mile long and going to get even longer. It's still long, but I think it's an improvement. Also I finished the rough draft for The Wayfarers: A Nation Without Maps and I'll be starting in soon on plotting The Wayfarers: A Continent Without Form.

January 1, 2008 - Happy New Year! I have just posted Tempting the Fates (the fifth volume of A Plethora of Deities). Also I'm getting ready to write The Wayfarers: A Nation Without Maps and am proofing The Book of Candle and Dry Dock. In the coming year I plan to write another A Plethora of Deities story, Teasing the Furies and yet another story from  Down Time, Ltd., Double Time.
    Speaking of Down Time, Ltd., I plan to have the first four books available in print very soon. Stay tuned! s always those who are interested can receive news of my releases via RSS feeds at my Lulu and Live Spaces sites.

March 28, 2008 -  It's been three and a half months since my last post and I've written two new novels since then. Guess I've been a bit busy. Just posted is The Book of Candle (Ars Nova Magica #4). I hope you all enjoy the series conclusion. but this isn't the final story for Oceanvine, Sextant and the others. Just as I used the the main characters for the first series to set up the second, the surviving cast of characters get one last appearance in Dry Dock: A Story of Maiyim. I hope to be posting that soon. I have also finished the third part of The Wayfarers, A Nation without Maps.  so that will be along in time and most recently I finished the rough draft of Teasing the Furies which is the sixth book of A Plethora of Deities. More specific series news can be found below.

    At the moment I'm suffering from having too many ideas and not enough time to write them all so there are plans being stacked up. My next writing project will be another of the Down Time Ltd. series and called Double Time. But along with all these other projects I have a new series spin-off from A Plethora of Deities in mind, and entirely new bunch of Stories called The Pirates of Pangaea and I really want to write Gaenor's Prophecy and a third story in The Terralano Venture. Time, all I need is time...

June 26, 2008 - It's starting to look like posting once every three months is becoming standard. Since then I have only written one new book, that being the latest Down Time, Ltd. story, Double Time. Since then I've been splitting my literary time (I do have other hobbies and responsibilities and this has been a time for those pursuits too! In case it doesn't show in my writing, I'm a firm believer that one can never have too many hobbies and that it's a good thing to fill one's leisure time with them. If nothing else it gives you something to do while watching TV...) between proofing A Nation without Maps and Teasing the Furies and in plotting The Pirates of Pangaea: An Accidental Alliance.

    One thing I've discovered it that if you're going to draw a map it helps if it is as big as you can comfortably get it. To that end I borrowed the use of a color plotter a friend has and printed several copies of my adaptation of the map of Pangaea Proxima (as postulated by Dr. Christopher R. Scotese, check his version out at http://www.scotese.com/future2.htm and also check out his other pages!) also called Pangaea Ultima, Neopangaea, etc. Actually, my characters are probably going to call it Earth, or something that means the same thing. Anyway after Copying Dr. Scotese's map, I had to erase most of the terrestrial features, save for the mountains, and postulate some rivers. NB: the rivers I came up with are entirely out of my own head. There were also a few additional and omitted features, but only because I made mistakes. I was going to correct them, but decided not to. Even Dr. Scotese says that farther out in time his projections reach, the greater the margin of error is likely to be. Who knows? Maybe I'll have gotten something right. Meet you all here in 250 million years and we can compare notes!

August 20, 2008 - I am pleased to announce that the latest volume of A Plethora of Deities, Teasing the Furies is now available for download. As has become normal at this time of year, I am nearly caught up on my proof reading, having only only book (Double Time) left to get into shape. How did I do that? Well, instead of writing this summer, I've been either busy plotting or off on vacation (and occasionally plotting). That means I'm all ready to write another two novels between now and the end of 2008, although at the moment, I am still working on the plot for the next A Plethora of Deities story, Inspiring the Muses.

    My writing schedule of the next few months is, September: Ars Scientiaque Magicae: Unexpected Reactions,  November: The Pirates of Pangaea: An Accidental Alliance, January: The Wayfarers: A Continent without Form, March: A Plethora of Deities: Inspiring the Muses. In May I plan to write something, but I'm not sure if it will be Dancing with the Sphinx: Waltz, or something else. For that matter, after writing Unexpected Reactions I may decide to write a side story or two instead of An Accidental Alliance, but the above is what I currently plan.

October 18, 2008 - Has it really been two months? Wow! In that time I've written the first draft of the first book of the new Maiyim Series Ars Scientiaque Magicae: Unexpected Reactions and am just starting to proof it now. Next up will be The Pirates of Pangaea: An Accidental Alliance, but the real news is that Double Time the fifth of the Down Time, Ltd. series is now available for download. Enjoy!

January 1, 2009 - Happy New Year!  I don't have anything really new to post at the moment and that is probably because I was almost caught up in October when I posted Double Time. I'm still diligently proof-reading Ars Scientiaque Magicae: Unexpected Reactions and and about to begin the second pass at The Pirates of Pangaea: An Accidental Alliance. Coming up will be Book 4 of The WayFarers: A Continent without Form  which I plan to start writing next week. What is new, however, is that Paul Durrant, on finding my stories mentioned at www.mobileread.com downloaded and converted Down Time into .mobi or mobipocket format. If you read books in that format and would like others that way, let me know and I'll see if I can get the converter I downloaded to do a similar job on some of my other titles. Paul's conversion can be found on the Down Time Ltd. page.

Update - February 20, 2009 - Ars Scientiaque Magicae: Unexpected Reactions has just been posted. Sorry about the delay but it really did need an additional going over. The Pirates of Pangaea: An Accidental Alliance is in it's fourth pass and may be ready to post by April. And the fourth book of the The WayFarers: not only written but has already undergone it's first proofing. However, I had to change the name to A Country without Unity for reasons you can find below in The Wayfarers' section.

Update - October 24, 2009 - Yikes! I should have updated this several times since February. Sorry about that, folks! Well, I have written several new stories since then and have just posted A Plethora of Deities: Inspiring the Muses. Since the last note, I have posted The Pirates of Pangaea: An Accidental Alliance and The WayFarers:A Country without Unity. I've also written The Terralano Venture: There Goes the Neighborhood and Ars Scientiaque Magicae: Hypothetical Notions the second book of that series. Next month I plan to write the next story in The Pirates of Pangaea series The Unscheduled Mission.

Update - December 19,2009 - As I write this I hope to have The Terralano Venture: There Goes the Neighborhood ready to post on New Year's Day. Not sure if I'll manage that, but I am certainly going to try. I just finished the rough draft of The Pirates of Pangaea: The Unscheduled Mission last weekend so that goes into the editing queue as well. What's really new, however is that owing to the hard work and generosity of Jan Hall (of www.EquineAddicts.com) , I now have most of my titles available in .mobi format. I really should have posted them sooner, but various things happened and I alternatively forgot I had them and got distracted by other things. None of that is a good excuse, but here they are now. Thanks, Jan!

Update - January 1, 2010 - Happy New Year! The Terralano Venture: There Goes the Neighborhood is now ready for downloading and I am busy proofing Ars Scientiaque Magicae: Hypothetical Notions.

Update - June 22, 2010 - The Pirates of Pangaea: The Unscheduled Mission is now available for download and Ars Scientiaque Magicae: Hypothetical Notions has been available for a while now. Both of those along with A Plethora of Deities: Inspiring the Muses, The Terralano Venture: There Goes the Neighborhood and The Wayfarers:A Country without Unity should be available in print very soon. Also I am now proofing The Wayfarers: A Continent without Form, Dancing with the Sphinx: Waltz, and Lift Off!, a story related to the Maiyim Series.

 Update - October 20, 2010 - The bad news: My schedule is somewhat off-track, so rather than writing  in September, I may not get to it until sometime in December. Consequently, my other scheduled projects will be pushed back accordingly. The good news: I've been writing special advanced missions for Snakehead Games Inc. The guys at Snakehead are a great bunch and I really enjoy working with them. If you're looking for an on-line web-browser-based game that is free, has a great community of players and almost addictively fun to play, they get my highest recommendation. For more information click here. Last January I wrote a story (Blame) at their request and now in conjunction with one of those new missions it is being released here. I think it stands up as a decent story even for those uninterested in gaming and hopefully you'll like it too.

Update - January 1, 2011 - Happy New Year! I still haven't started in on my September book Ars Scientiaque Magicae: Theoretical Bases, but, I do finally have Lift Off! ready for downloading, thereby keeping to my tradition of having a new book posted on New Year's Day. There's a lot been going on since my October post. I've continued writing those special missions for Snakehead Games, Inc. and also another short story What Could Possibly Go Wrong? which will eventually be available. And in just a few days I plan to get back to Maiyim with Theoretical Bases. After that my plans include the third The Pirates of Pangaea: The Planned Improvisation and The Wayfarers:An Ocean without Charts. After that I'm not sure if I'll be working on Ars Scientiaque Magicae: Experimental Proofs or Dancing with the Sphinx: Tango, but I haven't plotted either of those yet, so we'll see. Further out, I still have plans for a new fantasy humor series; not sure of the series name yet, but the first title is  Spelling Disabled: The Tale of a Dyslexic Wizard. So, I guess I have a very full year ahead...

Update - June 5, 2011 - I may not have been updating this or my (you call that a) blog, but I have been busy since New Year's Day. I have just posted Dancing with the Sphinx: Waltz and am currently proofing Ars Scientiaque Magicae: Theoretical Bases and The Pirates of Pangaea: A Planned Improvisation. I'm more or less back on my usual writing schedule and plan to start on Dancing with the Sphinx: Tango this week. I'm also plotting the next Ars Scientiaque Magicae book which will be named Required Components and not Experimental Proofs as I have previously announced.  The plotting is going slower than I expected mostly because of the necessity of inserting an extra story into the series. I have originally planned to have the next one several years after the end of Theoretical Bases, but several things happened. First I noticed that Theoretical Bases ended at an odd point and that it's best ending was about eight thousand words earlier, but what happens afterward is  important too so in a sense I have already started writing Required Components. Also, given all that is happening at that time a skip ahead like that would leave me with a lot of flashbacks or exposition (well, even more than usual) and it would be better writing to just  show it. So I have to expand on the section I do have and will borrow from what had been planned as the first part of Experimental Proofs, which will actually make more sense as I tell the story. Alien invasions are always inconvenient!

Update - July 5, 2012 - Real quick update. Dancing with the Sphinx: Tango, The Pirates of Pangaea: A Planned Improvisation, and Ars Scientiaque Magicae: Theoretical Bases have just been released in trade paperback for sale at my site at Lulu.com. And for those keeping track or even just vaguely interested, I have a complete plot sketch finished for The Pirates of Pangaea: The Forced Alternative  which I plan to write this autumn. Meanwhile, I am working on the plot for Dancing with the Sphinx: Foxtrot and hope to have both that and a plot sketch for Ars Scientiaque Magicae: Experimental Proofs finished before I start writing. In the coming year I also plat to get back to The Wayfarers:An Ocean without Charts which is already plotted and waiting for me.

Update - June 9, 2012 - Just posted Dancing with the Sphinx: Tango. I am having trouble with my .lit converter (Overdrive Readerworks) and an edition in .lit format may be delayed or never appear. The problem is that ever since Office 2007 came along with the new .docx format, something has changed in the documents even when I save them in the older .doc format. Consequently, to  convert to .lit, I must first reformat to plain text (in other words, dump all formatting) and then carefully reformat the entire document. It takes quite a while and I'm not sure it is worth the effort now that Microsoft no longer supports MS Reader. For those of you who still use it, btw, Microsoft still offers both Reader and the Word to .lit format converter, but the converter does not work with Word 2010... When I have a chance I'll have to set up a machine with Office 2003 on it so I can convert the documents directly, or convert the file manually. In the meantime here it is in mobi/prc format (also natively readable on the Kindle and in Html format so you can reformat the story to whatever reader you use.

Also I am rapidly running out of manuscripts to proofread. I mention a few months ago how family health issues are seriously cutting into my writing and plotting time and I only wrote one new novel this past year, Ars Scientiaque Magicae: Required Components. So I am spending the summer plotting new stories to try to get a little ahead. In the mean time there is going to be a bit of a gap between the next release and the one after that. Sorry about that. So much I want to write and just don't have the time.

One thing I am doing that's new is reviewing audio books (both the texts an the performances) for a while, at least, I'll be posting new reviews once a week, since there are a lot of audio books I've already listened to, although most of the ones I am reviewing are onces I have recently listened to. If you're interested, check out my blog site at http://jonathanfeinstein.wordpress.com 

Update - March 25, 2012 - Holy Crap! I invented the iPad!!! Well, no, but I did predict the iPad at least two years before Steve Jobs introduced it to an Apple-crazed fanbase. You can read all about that in the Author's Foreword of The Pirates of Pangaea: A Planned Improvisation which has just been posted for download. As I write this, I have finally just finished the rough draft of Ars Scientiaque Magicae: Required Components. It took a lot longer to write that one than I might normally have (See my update from January 1) but now I'm proofing it alternately with Dancing with the Sphinx: Tango. I probably ought to move on to The Wayfarers:An Ocean without Charts, but instead I am working on the plot of The Pirates of Pangaea: The Forced Alternative instead which will bring that series to a close. And all the projects I've mentioned below? Yes, eventually I shall get to them as well.

BTW: Much as it pains me, I have to face the fact that Microsoft has abandoned the .lit format that I have used as a staple for my e-books. I think .lit and MS Reader was a great format and way to read and was a great way to proofread my books. I’m, not going to stop posting in .lit immediately. I will use it to finish up most of my current series, but I have already embraced the .mobi/prc format which is also natively readable on all model Kindles. I am also looking at the EPUB format which is a finicky format but one I know some readers prefer. In fact I already have the first two Pirates of Pangaea books as well as the second volume of Gaenor’s Quest on the Apple and Barnes and Noble stores in EPUB format. For the record, I had nothing to do with the choices – blame Lulu.com. I just noticed one day that I was getting extra revenue and when I looked to see what was selling got a happy surprise. Anyway while one can purchase several good PDF to EPUB converters, there is a certain ammount of prep work you must do to make the final result something that is 100% complient witht he EPUB format. The converters don;t do the whole job so conversions may have to wait until I have time. Well, I can sleep when I’m dead or so they tell me.

Update - January 1, 2012 - Happy New Year! I have just posted Ars Scientiaque Magicae: Theoretical Bases. and am currently working on the next book of the series, Ars Scientiaque Magicae: Required Components. 2011 did not go as I had planned. Well, life has that habit, doesn't it? While I will not burden my readers with the sad details, it should suffice to say that I have had to deal with the mental and physical health problems of my mother and that cut deeply into my writing and proof reading time. I don't even want to think about the time I try to set aside for plotting! So my production is going to be somewhat less than it has been for the foreseeable future. However, I have not stopped writing by any means. I still have a finished plot sketch for The Wayfarers:An Ocean without Charts. And am proofing The Pirates of Pangaea: A Planned Improvisation. There is also a rough draft Dancing with the Sphinx: Tango of waiting for my attention, so the pipeline is hardly empty at this time. I still have plans for the final book of The Pirates of Pangaea: The Forced Alternative, and  Dancing with the Sphinx: Foxtrot, as well as the various projects I've mentioned in the past. No shortage of ideas, just time. Well isn't that always the way?

Update - June 24, 2014 - Believe it or not, I actually have been busy writing again. Not quite up to my old velocity of 5 books a year, but three isn't bad for a hobby. The main news is that Ars Scientiaque Magicae: Experimental Proofs is now available in all formats, including print. However, I'm not sure I'll be able to produce it or any other title in .lit format from here on. The format has been abandoned by Microsoft and was several years ago and it has become increasingly more difficult to  get Word documents to convert over since the format changes in  MS Office 2007. Even when converted to the old .doc format I get errors and the only way to make it work is to convert to plain text and then carefully reformat to .doc which takes hours. So, unless there is a great demand for my books in .lit, I'm afraid the time has come to drop that format.

In other news: I am currently proof-reading The Wayfarers: An Ocean without Charts and Dancing with the Sphinx: Foxtrot and so should have them available by year's end (I hope!) I am also in the middle of plotting the next Wayfarers book:An Empire without Order. Along with future projects, I mentioned last January, I also have two new  A Plethora of Deities stories in mind, Chasing Rainbows., which will center on the Greek goddess, Iris, and The Care and Feeding of Your Elder God, for which so far I only have a name, though I am trying to avoid have Jael running around with a pet Cthulhu...

Update - January 1, 2014 - Happy New Year! While I am still not writing at speeds I once considered normal, I do have a rough draft in the can for Ars Scientiaque Magicae: Experimental Proofs and plan to start writing The Wayfarers: An Ocean without Charts within the week or so. I am also actively plotting Ars Scientiaque Magicae: Desired Results, so I anticipate that I will be completing that series in the coming year and later this spring I hope to finally complete the series Dancing with the Sphinx with Foxtrot. After that? Well, I have a lot of plotting to to but Tales of a Dyslexic Wizard and Gaenor's Prophecy are still in the cards as well as the concluding two volumes of The Wayfarers: An Empire without Order and An Island without a Shore. So I guess I still have a lot of planning and writing ahead. Good! I would hate to get bored! ☺

Update - June 30, 2013 - uh... Happy MidYear's Eve? It's been a while and I really thought I would have gotten more accomplished since January. Well, I have not been a total sloth Snakehead Games asked me to write yet another advanced mission for their game, Spy Battle 2165 and that story turned out to be novel length, before we cut it in half. Aside from the basic text I have been involved with some other aspects in the development of this mission. Various things have come up, but we hope it will go live soon. in the meantime if you are interested, do create a free account and play the game for yourself at Spy Battle 2165. Snakehead's other browser-based games include Star Pirates, Coliseum and Gates of Camelot. Join us, in some really enjoyable web games.

Meanwhile The Pirates of Pangaea: The Forced Alternative is now available in nearly all formats, including the dead-tree format at www.lulu.com/jonathan27 . epub availablity at the iTunes Bookstore and BarnesandNoble.com  is currently pending approval.

By the way, if you have not yet checked it out, I have been writing reviews of audiobooks in my blog at http://jonathanfeinstein.wordpress.com. I've been having a lot of fun with that and have definitely learned why some reviewers love to write a bad review. However, I find I really enjoy being able to write a favorable review as well. But go read them for yourself.

Not sure what's next. Strangely I am actually caught up at the moment. That has not happened in years, but here I am. I hope to be writing Ars Scientiaque Magicae: Experimental Proofs this fall but at the moment it is only half plotted/ I should have time to finish the plot sketch by then, but if not, I'll likely work on either The Wayfarers: An Ocean without Charts or Dancing with the Sphinx: Foxtrot those two plots are ready to roll, at least. I also continue to develop a new fantasy humor series, Tales of a Dyslexic Wizard of which the first will be Spelling Disabled. I'm also starting to seriously consider making head roads on Gaenor's Prophecy, the sequel series to Gaenor's Quest. When will I find the time? Stay Tuned.

Update - January 1, 2013 - Happy New Year! Here, at last is the fourth volume of Ars Scientiaque Magicae: Required Components. I think I said elsewhere this one would be Experimental Proofs, but that is yet to come. My writing speed is still suffering due to other commitments and family health issues, but I am happy to announce that The Pirates of Pangaea: The Forced Alternative is ready for proofing and will hopefully be ready for release later this year. Next up on my writing schedule will be the next part of The Wayfarers: An Ocean without Charts. It's been over a year since I wrote one of those stories, but it is once I am looking forward to.

In other news, I have been doing some writing for Snakehead Games and wrote the stories behind two advanced missions for their games. My first one; "The Farcaster Foray" went live about two years ago as part of their game "Spy Battle 2165" and just two weeks ago a new advanced mission "Loyalties," went live in "Star Pirates." Admittedly to play the two missions you must first advance to levels 40 and 50 respectively in their main games, but I honestly think it is worth it. I have also recently been enjoying another game of theirs set in Ancient Rome "Coliseum" I have not written anything for that game, but it is another fascinating and fun game with a great community of players. Also this is still a fairly new game with only a few players as yet, so if you're into Ancient Roman history or are just looking for a fun game to play, check it out.

One more thing. Last June, I think, I started reviewing audio books on my blog site http://jonathanfeinstein.wordpress.com/ I have tried to keep it light and humorous while also making a fair review of the books and performances. I also make announcement of my newest books there and occasionally write general commentary on stuff happening in the world. I write one review per week so there's a lot to be read there now. If you haven't checked out my blog, lately maybe you'll like the changes.
 

Update - January 1, 2015 - Happy New Year!
     I am pleased to announce that Book 6 of The Wayfarers: An Ocean without Charts is now available for download in .lit, Mobi/Kindle format and in .html. I must apologize that the .lit formatted version is not as slick as previous volumes. I have been using ReaderWorks Publisher to produce my .lit formatted books, but while it is a great program, it has become increasingly incompatible with newer versions of MS Word. Maybe I should turn that around and say that Word is incompatible with RW Publisher, but it is all relative, I suppose. Consequently, I was forced to use a .txt file to convert to .lit. The result is readable, but not as nice looking as when I could go directly from Word format (and using the old .doc format does not help. There is something about the newer versions of word that puts in something incompatible regardless of format unless I save in plain text.) I plan to start writing the next volume in this series, An Empire without Order in a week or two. It will finish up the current story arc, a series within the greater series. I still plan a final story, An Island without a Shore, after that. I am currently proofing the third of the Dancing with the Sphinx trilogy, Foxtrot and also the finale of Ars Scientiaque Magicae: Desired Results.
     This spring I plan to write a new A Plethora of Deities story entitled Chasing Rainbows and will begin a new series next fall, so for me it is bound to be a very full year. I hope all is well with all of you!

Update - January 1, 2016 - Happy New Year!

    Has it really been a year since I last updated this page? Well, yes. Probably that is because I have taken to making most of my announcement via my Word Press blog. I definitely update that more frequently and post a weekly audio-book review as well.
    Well, anyway, I am happy to announce that Book 7 of The Wayfarers: An Empire without Order is now available for download in Mobi/Kindle format and in .html. It will also be available in epub format and in paperback later this year.
    Also, I am currently proof-reading A Plethora of Deities Book 11: Chasing Rainbows  and the first book of a new series,  Gaenor's Prophecy: Signs of Change which is the long-promised sequel to Gaenor's Quest.
   Coming up this year, I plan to write the series conclusion to The Wayfarers: An Island without a Shore, the next book of A Plethora of Deities: The Care and Feeding of Your Elder God and continue with Gaenor's Prophecy: Corrected Visions. Should keep me out of any other trouble, I think.

Three Stories of Maiyim

    Update - April 1, 2005: I just posted these as a combined e-book. Enjoy!

    Update - December 4, 2004: All three stories are written and will probably be offered as a set as I've discovered that the individual stories compile into e-books that are nearly as large as an entire novel. I suspect the reason is in the size of the graphics for the cover pages. At this writing I'm still proofreading An Interesting Title and A Shattered Family.

    8/02/04 I really wasn't planning to write these, but after finishing Taking Time in mid-June I decided that I didn't want to start another book that would be unfinished while I was on vacation. The way I get monomaniacal about writing I figured I'd be far more relaxed if I didn't have that hanging over my head. I normally only take a month off between projects these days so when the second week of July came along I was itching to write again and if I didn't do something it would be another month before I'd be back from vacation, so I started reading through my notes for Ars Nova Magica in preparation for The Maiyim Bourne. And very shortly I realized that I had briefly sketched out three key events that took place between the two series. It was a natural bridge and while each of them could easily be a novel, I could also cover what was necessary in a short story. I don't generally like writing short stories, but these called out to me.

    I quickly plotted the first one, "A Deadly Union," then promptly fell to writing it.  It involves Oceanvine and Candle and takes place almost a year after Gods of the Air. Silverwind makes a cameo appearance but is not directly involved in this one. It does introduce a new character who may appear or at least be mentioned later on, however.

    Next I plotted "An Interesting Title." Of the original cast of characters, only Candle appears in this story and it involves an adventure that takes place while he is a wizard candidate in Querna. However, he shouldn't be the only familiar figure in the story for several characters from Men of the Earth and Gods of the Air will be featured.

    Because I didn't have time to start writing that before vacation, I started plotting the third of the series, "A Shattered Family." As I write this I'm still only partly finished on the plot sketch, but can reveal that Silverwind, Oceanvine and Candle will be the lead characters in it. All three stories were developed as background for the Ars Nova Magica series and all will contain set-up information for that series, although it will not be necessary to read them first. I'm not even certain all three will eventually be written, but knowing me, they probably will.

Gaenor's Quest

    Update - August 24, 2005 - Finished! The Cold, Clear Skies of Midnight is now yours to read. I hope it was worth the wait. I ended up having to proof it an additional time because I found too many errors on the third pass. Fortunately these were all minor typos, not bad continuity problems. I have never written anything as quickly as I have this book, and frankly I hope I never do again. I was averaging over 20,000 words per week until my Mom broke her hip last winter. That slowed me down a bit. However, it was still finished in a mere seven weeks. When writing that fast it often feels like the story is out of my control. Fortunately, multiple proofings brought it back under control where necessary, although I didn't change very much, certainly nothing important. Just as when finishing the Maiyim Tetralogy, however, I started thinking about what my characters might do next or how the future of the world might be shaped. I still only have a few vague ideas, but I think a new series should be entitled, "Gaenor's Prophecy." Stay tuned!

    Update - June 27, 2005 - I'm just about to start the third proof-reading pass on The Cold, Clear Skies of Midnight. I hope to have it posted this fall. If I'm really  conscientious, maybe even earlier -  sometime around Labor Day?

    Update - May 21, 2005 - The Cold, Clear Skies of Midnight is now on it's second proofing, which for those who may not have read some of my other notes, is the first time I get to read it.

    Update - April 1, 2005: I have never written anything as rapidly as I did The Cold, Clear Skies of Midnight. Now I know speed of composition is no measure of quality, but generally when a story pours out of me in that fashion it's pretty good. Well, I haven't read it yet, so we'll see. The story did turn out to have surprises for me, but that's not unusual. The plot outline ran something like 26 pages of hand-written notes, so there was plenty of room for details even I didn't plan on. First pass proofing starts soon, I hope.

    Update - December 4, 2004: The Rainbow of Dusk has been posted and now I'm plotting The Cold, Clear Skies of Midnight to be started sometime after New Year's. Strangely enough, all I had to go on for the plot of the fourth book was a single sentence, "They all go off to Ichtar to confront the demons." That's a bit too high-concept even for my tastes, although when taken together with the rest of the series, I suppose it was enough at the time. It's just that when I plotted the second book, I ended up with enough for two volumes instead, which is why some of my readers may have wondered why I did not complete the series in the third book as I predicted in the first one. The story is the same, it's just taking more time to tell it.

    Update ( 6/14/04):  So far The Rainbow of Dusk has undergone one proof-reading and not by me, so it's going to be a bit before it's ready. But, as I said before, it's looking good and the whole series is progressing nicely toward it's conclusion. I plan to write the fourth and final book of the series, The Cold, Clear Skies of Midnight, very early in 2005.

Update - January 28, 2017 - A late Happy New Year to all!

 Due to an assortment of issues, mostly regarding the state of my digital devices, this is a month late although I finally offer up the series conclusion to The Wayfarers.  Most of the issues involved losing edits to the text several times. Nothing worse than having to the correct the same typos two or three times, but I think the story is more or less in shape now, so  finally An Island without a Shore is available for download. My next editing project will be Gaenor's Prophecy: Corrected Visions, book two of that series. I have finally started plotting  The Dyslexic Wizard: Spelling Disabled although I'll be starting in on writing A Plethora of Deities: The Care and Feeding of Your Elder God in a few days, so progress is being made... slowly.

Update - July 2, 2016 - Happy Holiday Weekend in both the USA and Canada!

    Does anyone actually read these entries? I suspect very few do, maybe only me... and I have to write them. Well, just in case someone does read this, I am happy to announce the publication of three books in e-pub, Kindle and the good ole fashioned dead-tree format. Those three are The Wayfarers: An Empire without Order, A Plethora of Deities Book 11: Chasing Rainbows, and Gaenor's Prophecy: Signs of Change. I posted Chasing Rainbows in .prc and .html formats here last week and Signs of Change goes up today. I am still plotting A Plethora of Deities: The Care and Feeding of Your Elder God but I will probably put that outline aside as I plan to write the next book of Gaenor's Prophecy: Corrected Visions this fall and only have a brief sketch of that one so far. This winter I hope to finally start a new series; The Dyslexic Wizard with Spelling Disabled, assuming I get it plotted in time, although I note that at current all my active projects are Fantasy and I usually like to have at least one SF series going on... Well... I'll see.

 Ars Scientiaque Magicae

    Update - February 20, 2009 - Unexpected Reactions is finally available for download about six weeks later than promised, but I hope it was worth the way.

    Update - January 1, 2008 - I went a bit crazy and not only plotted Unexpected Reactions but the second book Hypothetical Notions  as well, although that second might be Hypothetical Ideas. I haven't decided yet. I also have the rest of the series roughly planned now.

    Update - October 7, 2007 - I'm still working out the specifics for the third and probably final Maiyim series, but have a general idea of where it will be going and intend to start seriously plotting the first book, Unexpected Reactions very soon.

Ars Nova Magica

        Update - March 28, 2008 - The Book of Candle is now available, I'm still proofing Dry Dock, but already looking forward to starting in on Unexpected Reactions.

    Update - January 1, 2008 - I've finished Dry Dock and it is currently undergoing its first stage of proofing. Also I'm reading  The Book of Candle  for the second time.

    Update - October 7, 2007 - I finished the rough draft of  The Book of Candle just the other day and am looking forward to reading it. So far all I've actually read, as a reader, was one pivotal scene that I wasn't sure about, but it turned out I liked it better than I remembered. Since then I have been reviewing the plot sketch for Dry Dock.

    Update - July 7, 2007 - The Tears of Methis and Freshman Orientation have been available for download for a while now and I'm starting to gear up to write the finale of the series  The Book of Candle and currently plotting Dry Dock that will serve as a bridge between this and the third Maiyim Series, Ars Scientiaque Magicae. Also I recently formatted the Three Stories of Maiyim  together with A Promising Career and A Fine Adventure for sale at www.lulu.com/jonathan27 in a new volume entitled Five Stories of Maiyim. When it is released, probably in about a month the first two books of  Ars Nova Magica, The Maiyim Bourne and The Staff of Aritos  will become available at the same time.

    Update - October 31, 2006 - The Tears of Methis is ready for the first pass of proofreading. It was a tough book to write, but I hope it reads okay. Also the trend for side stories is continuing and the next one, Freshman Orientation, features Sally Candleson, Candle's granddaughter from the main series. Hard to believe little Sally has grown up enough to attend University...

    Update - August 25,2006 - I'm gearing up to start writing  The Tears of Methis. Strangely the "Ars Nova Magica" series is spawning more side stories than I might have thought possible. I haven't even started Book Three of the main series and I already have an idea for at least one and a half shorter stories that will be derived from it. No more about them yet, it might give something away!

    Update - June 18,2006 - The first pass of A Fine Adventure is complete, I'll be proofing it alternately with The Tree (from A Plethora of Deities),  so I'm not sure which will be ready first, although if past experience is any indication, it will be the shorter of the two stories.

    Update - April 19, 2006 - A Promising Career is now available. I plan to start A Fine Adventure, another side story to the series, at the beginning of May and The Tears of Methis next September

    Update - March 6, 2006 - The Staff of Aritos is now available. The next book in the series, The Tears of Methis is fully plotted and ready to go and A Promising Career is still being proofed. But wait, there's more! I have another side story to the Ars Nova Magica series planned and it will be called A Fine Adventure and it will feature... No, I think I'll keep that to myself for a bit, but it will be a very different story from the rest.  More on that later.

    Update - January1, 2006; The Staff of Aritos is currently on it's third pass of proofreading, and A Promising Career has been read twice now. As I mentioned elsewhere, when I got to the conclusion of  The Staff of Aritos I noticed I'd left an unintended loose end. I could have tied it up with a single paragraph, but instead decided it would make a nice short story. It turned out to be a larger story than I expected  and at 35,000 it's a novella or a short novel (depending on which publisher is considering it), I personally think of it as a short novel for a number of technical reasons that I'll keep to myself for now, but you can decide for yourselves when it's ready later this year.

    Update - May 21, 2005 ; The Maiyim Bourne is now ready to download. I really think I was trying to keep it to myself. I ended up putting the story through five proofings instead of the usual four, but as I found still more typos (which always leaves me wondering what I may have missed) that's probably a good thing.  As I mentioned last month I have The Staff of Aritos fully plotted and plan to start writing it in September.

   Update - April 1, 2005: Well, I did not get around to plotting The Staff of Aritos last December as I expected, but I did do it two weeks ago. Meanwhile I'm on the next to last proofing pass on The Maiyim Bourne, so I should have that posted in June or early July. I'm very happy with how The Maiyim Bourne turned out and hope you all will enjoy it as much as I did. It may be my best Maiyim story so far.

   Update - December 4, 2004: The Maiyim Bourne is finished. Well, the rough draft is anyway. I'm looking forward to reading it. I have probably mentioned this before, but I've noticed that I get a different experience from reading my own work than I do in writing it. Different parts of the brain, I guess, but it always feels as though I'm reading a story for the first time, even if I wrote it. On one level I know what is going to happen, but on another it's new to me. I plan to do a detailed plot sketch  of The Staff of Aritos sometime this month even though I may not actually write it until next autumn.

    March 14, 2004 -  I couldn't let Maiyim fade away completely and one day while driving into work I had a sudden idea. Swerving off the road to avoid a school bus (no, not really!), I quickly stopped to write it down. Gods of the Air takes place in a world roughly analogous to 1905-9; what might Maiyim be like in another sixty years? It took a full month and two full legal pads full of character sketches, Maiyim history, and the plot of The Maiyim Bourne as well as plot sketches for the other three books in the series; The Staff of Aritos, The Tears of Methis, and The Book of Candle. I won't go into any more detail just yet since the first two titles come from stuff that happens in Gods of the Air. However I will admit that I'm very excited about this series which I plan to start writing this fall.

Down Time Ltd.

   This series all stems from an idea I had back in the early eighties. It involves a somewhat cocky temporal tour guide, his sidekick assistant and the wonky Transitory Time Transport, called a "Transit" for short. The sidekick character may change every so often for the same reasons the Doctor's assistants in Dr. Who kept changing; how many different ways can you say, "What is it, Doctor?" The main character is called Pflum. He's a very much "making it up as I go along" sort of guy. When asked a technical question he always has a quick answer; sometimes it's even correct. There are several characters who act as a foil to him one way or another; the man would be insufferable otherwise.

                Update (1/1/07) Show Time! is now available for downloading.

                Update (10/31/06) Show Time! has one more proof reading pass to go and it remains a fun read for me, and hopefully someone will agree with me.

                Update (06/19/06) I plan to start writing Show Time! tomorrow.

                Update (04/19/06): I thought Time Out and Taking Time were a bit too similar and promised not to write another story in this series until I could come up with something a bit different. Well, I do have a new story planned and while I won't say much about it now, the new title will be Show Time!

                Update (06/27/05): Just finished the second stage of proofing on Time Out.

                Update (05/21/05): The rough draft of Time Out is finished and being read for the first time. This was a fun little story to write as I finally had to replace Pflum's assistant. I hope readers won't mind but Jack really needed to get back to school. His replacement, however, is a fun character. More later, maybe.

                Update (04/01/05): My next project will be book three of this series, Time Out. Looking below, I note that in my last update to this section, I hadn't even named it, much less plotted, the story at that time (although I did mention it in my New Year's update). Well, it's ready to go now and I'll be starting it very soon.

                Update (12/04/04): I'm in the final stages of proofreading Taking Time which I'm hoping to post on New Year's Day or at least sometime over that weekend. I'm still thinking ahead about the third book, still unnamed, which will probably be written in the spring or summer of 2005.

                Update (08/02/04): Book Three: No planned title yet, but I came up with an interesting word image the other day and decided it was the sort of thing Pflum might say, so I wrote it down and went to toss it into the file folder for the Down Time series. What I didn't expect to find was two "Down Time, Ltd." folders. Judging by the contents I must have written them sometime between 1992-94. What were they? Character sketches for the cast of the series. However, that have nothing in common with the characters I eventually used. In fact I had totally forgotten I had even come up with them. While discussing them with a friend, however, I decided I could use the original characters, or some of them, in the next Down Time story and quickly came up with a premise. Stay tuned!

               Update (06/14/04): Book Two: In spite of my earlier prediction Taking Time turns out to be the title of the next Down Time, Ltd. story. That name went through a lot of changes as I wrote the story. Some of the other titles include  Time Out, Making Time, Break Time, Time Off and Spring Time. As it happens about the only title I did not consider this time around was Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Time. Well, those titles, along with a couple dozen others, will all go back into the bin for later usage. I've just recently finished the rough draft of Taking Time, and yet I'm already starting to consider what Pflum and company will be up to next.

The Wayfarers

Update - February 20, 2009 - I started writing A Continent without Form just after New Year's Day but it ran much longer than I expected it to, so what I finished was A Country without Unity. I'm really only part way through my original plot for the story, but fortunately there was a good break-off point where the characters accomplished what they were supposed to, so even though there's obviously more ahead, I feel there's a complete story here. I did have to tweak what was left

Update - March 28, 2008 - I am just starting to proof A Nation without Maps but have already plotted the next story A Continent without Form. That will be followed by An Ocean without Charts,  An Empire without Order, I think, and finally An Island without a Shore. Seven books is probably enough for this series. At least I think that will exhaust what I want to say about the World without a name though I might think of more.

Update - October 7, 2007 -In what little spare time I have, I'm starting to review the plot sketch for Book Three  A Nation Without Maps.

Update January 1,2007: I'm getting ready to start writing A World Without a Name which I think will be a departure from the tone in the first book. I admit that my heroes had a fairly easy time of it in the first story, if you count walking over three thousand miles of mountains, savannah, rain forest and swamps as easy. However, the point there was to demonstrate what they could do. From here on out you'll be seeing more of their limitations. That should make for better story-telling.

Update April 19, 2005: I'm just starting the third proof-reading pass on A Land Without Borders.  

Update  March 6, 2006:  A Land Without Borders is finished and has already undergone the first stage of proofreading and the next book of the series A World Without a Name is plotted and ready to write although I don't plan to get back to it until next January.

Update January 1, 2006: I'm just about the start writing A Land Without Borders. Last May I wrote that I only had the first book plotted. I have the next two sketched out now and some pretty nifty ideas of how I expect the series to go. I'm really looking forward to this first totally new series I've done in years!

Update May 21, 2005: This is a hard one to describe and as I haven't done much more than plot the first of five books, I ought to keep the details to myself as they may well change before I start writing. However, I can share some of what I have worked out. It all started when I sat down to draw a map for a new world. My mind went blank. I spent the whole evening watching movies with a legal pad and a pencil in front of me and didn't manage to draw so much as a crooked line. The next morning the phrase "A Land Without Borders" was bouncing around my otherwise empty head. I decided that was a good name for a book and  started thinking, "What if a world could not be mapped for some reason?" Of course I had to figure out what that reason might be and by the time I was done I had the most complex world I've designed to date. Well actually I'm not completely done, on it, but I have the first book plotted in detail a brief sketch for the second, A World Without a Name, and long term plot lines to get me through the other three; A Nation Without Maps, An Ocean Without Charts, and An Empire Without Order. I'm not sure five books will actually be enough, to adequately cover this world, but That's about as long as the long term plots will go. If it turns out well, I can always start a second series... I plan to start writing A Land Without Borders just after the first of the year.