This is the point at which my agent turns awesome and says things such as: Write me something new.

Or she'll say: Such-and-such market needs a short story, or a novella, do you have one?

She keeps me focused on the business of writing.

Having promised myself that I would do what my agent said, I wrote something whenever she asked.

Interspersed among all this writing, the fans and other authors really gave me a lot of encouragement to keep trying. Without all of you, I might have thrown in the towel long ago.

So instead of succumbing to ISUCK = IQUIT, I kept writing.

Ideas came and went, some panned out others didn't. Novellas are fairly quick to write and having tried one over the summer, I wanted to do one more. World building is an intricate process that takes time, though, at least for me.

I had one trunk novel with characters that I loved. Their mythology was already built, and I didn't want to lose the characters just because the novel hadn't sold. So I talked with my agent about resurrecting them in a different setting, and she thought that was a great idea. We gave Los Nefilim a test run in Hisses and Wings, a novelette that I enjoyed writing with Alex Bledsoe.

While working on Hisses and Wings with Alex, I was also writing a novella entitled In Midnight's Silence, which featured Los Nefilim. The two projects went hand in hand for a while. In January, I completed the novella and my agent sent it out on submission.

A few weeks ago, In Midnight's Silence sold to Harper Voyager Impulse. I am thrilled to be working with David Pomerico and even more excited to announce that on June 23, 2015, you can read In Midnight's Silence. Two more novellas will be published in the series later this year and early next year: Without Light or Guide and The Second Death.

There are three morals to this little story:

Always listen to your agent; Always appreciate your fans; Whenever you're overcome with ISUCK, write something different, and don't give up.

Because when you don't give up, you sometimes manage to be in the right place at the right time with the right editor. And while I never discount luck as a selling factor, I also want you to know that a lot of hard work went into this story before it was ready for submission. I'm glad I took my time with it and accepted everyone's offers of help.

Without further ado, please meet Diago Alvarez, the hero of In Midnight's Silence.

INTRODUCING LOS NEFILIM

Coming June 23, 2015

THE FATE OF MANKIND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MANKIND…