Oh, my goodness. You guys. It's been crazypants around here. I can't believe I haven't blogged for over a month. Actually, I can believe it. My work schedule got a little out of control, which is what happens when Real Life Stuff takes over. Child care issues put me behind on The Indigo Spell earlier this year, as did a last-minute realization that a major part needed to be reworked.

THAT, in turn, put me behind on Gameboard of the Gods, which was further delayed when it ran into some book signings and some unexpected and very sad family news. The bottom line is that I ended up having to do some scrambling to finish Gameboard by its (new) due date. Dutton, its publisher, was very kind and patient as I worked it all out. The end result is a 154,000 word book (a little over Last Sacrifice's size) in two months. That's very cool to brag about but less cool to implement. It came at the cost of sleep and spending time with my family, but when life complicates things, you have to adjust. Now I should be back in a much calmer work mode, and my awesome editor will help fix the flaws that of course come with any first draft. We'll have some good stuff for you.

Which brings us to an important question: what is Gameboard of the Gods?

It's been mentioned a few times in Richelleland, but I know it's easy to miss stuff like that, especially in the onslaught of Bloodlines updates. Gameboard is the first book in my new Age of X series, which is a kind of futuristic paranormal series for adults (though teens can read it too because I would've been all over this in my younger years).

Here's the premise. Religious extremists released a virus that wiped out half the world's population and plunged it into chaos. A hundred years later, some places have recovered better than others, including a high tech new country formed out of pieces of the former US and Canada (I'm pretty sure it's only a matter of time before our countries unite anyway). After its troubled past, this country has an understandably wary attitude toward religion. It goes out of its way to dismantle most religious groups and debunk any claims of the mystical or paranormal. My hero is an uber charismatic guy who helps carry out that agenda for the government. My heroine, who hangs out with him, is a former Finnish debutante who's now a kind of super soldier. Unfortunately, denying that the supernatural exists gets a little hard when it starts following them around...

So there we go! I'm excited about this. I love the characters and the world, and although I can't use 80s music references, there's still enough wacky banter and sexual tension to make it a Richelle book. There'll be more updates coming, as well as the cover. This book comes out in June, which means 2013 is going to be happening: Indigo in February, Gameboard in June, and Bloodlines #4 (title and exact date to come) in the fall. That also explains why there's so much work going on this year! But it's going to be awesome, and I hope you guys love what's to come.