Wow, long time, no update! Ari and I have both had a really busy spring, but we hope to get back in the groove of updating this summer.

Our first bit of news is that we have a new Herc’s Mercs book coming out in August! Herc’s Mercs: Once a Hero is a little different from the previous Herc books in that our merc starts off in retirement.

Ezra Levin formerly served in the Israeli Army and the Mossad, and he ended his career working with Cade “Herc” Thornton at Lawson and Greer and then Hercules Security. But at 45, he’s feeling the effects of a soldier’s life on his body, and he’s retired to work as a personal chef for Judge Mason Whittaker, a widower who is raising his son, Jamie. But when it appears an ex-convict is holding a grudge against the man who put him behind bars, Ezra must come out of retirement to protect Mason and Jamie — and admit the truth about his past to the man he loves.

This book is different not only because our merc is older and retired, but also because for the first time, I wrote the merc! Usually, I write the client because Ari is better with action than I am, but we decided to switch it up this time. Writing Ezra was a fun, new challenge, but for Herc 5 and 6, I’m writing the client again. 😉

Speaking of which, we’re putting the finishing touches on a draft of Herc 5 now! We need to add a couple of scenes and go through the editing process, and then we should be able to submit it within the next 2-3 weeks.

Herc’s Mercs: Once A Hero will be released on August 26 by Torquere Press.

Meanwhile, I have a solo story coming out in July! My collaboration with Ari is still going strong, and neither of us has any intention of quitting, but for various reasons, I decided to try flexing my solo writing muscles again. I submitted a short story to the Plaid Nights anthology call at Torquere Press, which was for stories from 3,000-10,000 words featuring men in kilts. My story, “As Fair Art Thou, My Bonny Lad”, was accepted, and it will be published as part of the anthology on July 15!

Currently, I’m working on another solo short story, this one for Torquere’s First Time anthology. After we finish up the draft of Herc 5, we’re going to focus on finishing Blood Bathory 3. It’s taken us a while to get to the point of being nearly finished, partly because we had two or three false starts with that story and partly because we’ve gotten derailed by hot, hunky mercs. 😉 Given that this is the last book in the trilogy, we’ve taken extra care to make sure we end on a strong, solid note. That’s not to say we can’t or won’t revisit the Blood Bathory universe! The plot lines from the trilogy will be wrapped up, but there’s definitely room for us to explore other characters and conflicts, and we have a few tentative plans for what we might do.

So much writing, so little time!