Well, that day is nearly upon us- my first release of 2016. And, wow, what a release… over 600 pages. STEELHEART is the story of David de Lohr, the brother of Christopher de Lohr (RISE OF THE DEFENDER). David has been a secondary character in no less than five novels – sometimes he just makes an appearance, other times he’s a major player. But he’s never had his own story until now. And it’s a hell of a tale.
I had put off doing David’s story because, being a romance, I knew I would be restricted by what happened in RISE OF THE DEFENDER. David is in that book so much that I would be governed by that, including when he meets his wife, Emilie. I thought it might be too complex or even impossible to do, so I just avoided it. But my lovely readers kept asking about it so I thought I should just suck it up and give David is due, which I did. Seriously, it was the most complex book I’ve ever written.
But I had a system- I had ROTD up on one computer monitor while I wrote on the other. I was literally reading ROTD chapter by chapter, filling in the blanks when David wasn’t in ROTD and writing his story parallel to what was happening in ROTD. The result is a major epic with both new and old characters, and a love story that is really heart wrenching at times. Towards the end of ROTD, I realized that David went to Emilie – and subsequently left her – FOUR times. Four times!! So how do I make him not look like an ass and her not look like a doormat with those four separate departures? You’ll find out when you read the novel. I think I did it right – I hope so. But, ultimately, that’s up to you to decide. The end result, I feel, is a truly powerful love story I didn’t know David was capable of.
And when I say this book is epic, I really mean that – it’s almost twice the size of a normal novel (bigger than most but not quite ROTD size) and it covers the span of a couple of years. A lot can happen in those years, and a lot does.
So, if you don’t yet have your copy reserved, you really are going to want to do that. Or make sure you get it the day it releases. You are absolutely not going to want to miss this one.
Find it here:
