What is that on the horizon?

I usually shoot for someone in the 80k to 100k range for a novel. However, I don’t want to pad something just to get it to the minimum length… but I usually find there is something lacking in the story if I’m not close to that range.

That said, At Arm’s Length is the one that is currently furthest along. It is tapping in at around 71k words. It is a story about a writer, Finn Powers, who is in the early throes of divorce when he runs into an old flame. It wasn’t random, either… she needs something from him. Which puts both of them in danger. It isn’t directly part of the Dixon-Prince series, but does have a couple of characters… including Warren Chestik, below.

The next closest one is Sniper. That title also might stick… although I am also kicking around (Guardian) Angel (of Death). Warren Chestik (who appears in Unknown Caller and Second Chance) is a former military sniper. He ends of going undercover in a drug cartel, but then his wife and daughter are kidnapped.

Shining Star, a title that will likely change, is the story about a woman that runs into the man she left at the altar. They met when he saved her life, and she ran back to him again when she needed saving. Both of their lives have changed in the decade since that happened, and they are both different people. It 64k words, the story is well developed, but there is more that needs to go into it.

The one that I have been working on the longest… and which has sat by itself in the corner being ignored the most is Death Star. It is currently around 47k words, and I barely have the meat of the story covered. Jennifer Coolidge works for Dirk Bryce, Jack Dixon’s long-time friend. She calls her computer the Death Star, and she uses it to protect the computer network of Jack’s father-in-law’s old company. But she is targeted for her skills and her assistant is the one that has to save her… after stinging her with a betrayal.

Another that has been kicking around a long time, Invisible Jack. It is only around 28k words right now, and doesn’t even have a skeleton. The premise is that Jack Dixon isn’t as clean as he seems. In the other books, Jonathan “Jack” Dixon is almost too good to be true. He is smart, loyal and a perfect husband. But nobody can be that “good.” Jack isn’t a bad guy, but he faces his own demons and his own temptations.

Finally, one that has been around a little while and hasn’t been developed much, at only 13k words… Railroaded. It is another story that isn’t part of the Dixon-Prince universe, like Shining Star. Every once in a while I just get a bug on this one and write a few thousand words. It won’t be the next book… but it could get written in a month, or it could ripen for a year of more. I just don’t know with this one.