New Substack Book: Don't Let Go

 

Some of you might remember a mystery/thriller/police procedural romance I teased last year. To finish it or not to finish it became the question. Launching my Substack and finishing up Avarice of the Empire put the thriller, Don't Let Go, on the backburner. 

Reexamining it now, it feels ridiculous not to finish it, not since there's 61k words already written. Since it's a departure from my usual series, and more of a marketing risk, I've decided to share it on Substack. I posted chapter one already and will drop chapter two today as well. I love the idea of Substack becoming a place where I can experiment a little, and share stories with subscribers that might otherwise never see the light of day.

I'll be posting it chapter by chapter just like Inherent Violence. I hope you'll check it out. Happy reading! 

Title Reveal: Field of Fire

 I've spent today's writing time focusing on Drake Chronicles Book 7, which now has a title! 

Keep scrolling for a sneak peek at chapter one of Field of Fire, the seventh and final Drake novel.

🐉🐉🐉

The cry came again, closer, and cold terror gripped Reggie around the heart. Sank claws, and fangs, and threatened to crush his chest. “Gods,” he whispered. “Oh, Gods.”

The Sels had drakes. The Sels likely had hundreds, maybe even thousands of drakes, based on the roadside assault: the portal, the dog-sized drakes pouring through in whole flocks, and the massive head and neck, lopped off when the portal closed. What were they flying toward now? How could they hope to survive it?

He hauled on the left rein. “Lennie, no, turn away—”

Too late.

The cloud floor exploded ahead of them, a hundred or so yards away. White burst through white, a tumble of soft, dull clouds, and something hard and gleaming, reflecting the pink sunrise with dazzling brightness.

Valencia pulled up short, halting in midair, wings beating backward. Reggie lurched forward in the saddle and caught himself on her shoulders. When he glanced down, a gap in the clouds revealed jagged peaks below, like the squiggles on a map from this height.

Nausea rolled through him. He sucked in a breath and sat up, reaching for his sword hilt with one hand, for all the good it would do.

As tatters of cloud streamed sway, the enemy took shape. Drakes. Three of them, of similar size to the fire-drakes, but a gleaming snow white in color.

Alpha roared.

The largest white drake roared back.

Three things happened at once.

Reggie recalled what Amelia had said about Oliver and Tessa, about their drakes being cold-drakes; being white.

Reggie spotted riders on two of the drakes. The straps of saddles, breastplates, and the flutter of long leather reins just like the ones he held.

And Alpha ducked his head, pumped his wings, and flew toward them like an arrow loosed from a bow.

“No!” Reggie bellowed. “Alpha, no!”

Newsletter 2/1/26

 

**This is a mirrored post from my Substack, where you can read it, and all chapters of the Alex Bonfils-centric Dartmoor tie-in novel, Inherent Violence. 

February greetings from a snowy corner of Georgia. It’s been bitter, windy, ice-breaking weather here, but thankfully we avoided the snow and freezing rain that’s struck Tennessee two weeks in a row. I’ll take all the small favors I can get. Now that the Christmas season is well behind us, I’m ready to trade the midwinter blues for green grass, happy horses, and evenings that melt long and slow into night. Daylight savings can’t come fast enough.

As for today, there are a few news items of note:

• I broke ground on the seventh and final Drake Chronicles book this morning, as of yet untitled. Book six, Avarice of the Empire, released at the end of December and offered some wild twists, including a surprise ending that leads directly into the action of the big finale. I’m determined that book seven will be the last book, even if it winds up being a chunky installment. Before anyone asks, I have no idea when it might release. Sorry! There’s lots to juggle at the moment.

• Last week I started a new post series all about writing. Writing 101 focuses on the importance of reading for writers, and Writing 102, the next installment, will discuss journaling and practice writing. This is a deep dive look at craft, from concept to completion, and as of now, I’m planning to update it on a monthly basis, depending on the rest of my writing workload.

• The Alex-centered Dartmoor novel Inherent Violence is rolling along here on Substack. We’re up to Chapter Twenty-One as of last night, and in Chapter Twenty-Two, Miranda gets to meet the old ladies. For anyone asking if I’ll eventually turn this book into a Kindle/paperback release, the answer is that I haven’t decided. Low Lord Have Mercy sales lead me to believe that it wouldn’t sell very well, and in this format, I get to offer it as an exclusive to Substack supporters. So, we’ll see, but I’m not sure.

I have a bit of personal news as well. If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen my stories a week or so ago when I talked about my health issues. I don’t want to say too much yet, but suffice to say that I felt terrible for most of 2025, especially in the back half of the year. At the beginning of January, I started seeing a new doctor, one who’s actually taking my pain and other symptoms seriously; she’s being proactive, and that’s been a tremendous relief. I had an ultrasound last Tuesday to check on one thing…and the radiologist wound up finding something unexpected. My doctor ordered an MRI, and I have that this coming Tuesday evening. We’ve been moving forward with the hypothesis that I have endometriosis, or ovarian cysts, or both, and now there’s another complication that needs examining. I’m nervous. Hopefully the MRI can shed light on everything that’s going on, and we can move forward with a clear surgical plan.

All that’s to say that I’m not sure what my schedule for the next few weeks or months is going to look like. I’m going to write as much as I can, with the idea that I’ll have scheduled posts set to drop in the early stages of any surgery recovery period. If I’m laid up for a while, I won’t be much use at the barn (ugh!) but should still be able to write. I’ll keep y’all posted!

Stay warm, everyone :)