First off, a bit of a mea culpa to my faithful readers.

Some of you have been wondering, “what on Earth has been going on, with the Angel Brings Fire series (and particularly the sequels to it), in 2016?” The following is the explanation.

I have a “day job” in IT (computer) security; this is a demanding field at the best of times (especially nowadays, with all the visibility that the Russian hacks of the Democratic Party in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, has generated), but in late 2015 I accepted a new assignment with a major U.S.-based financial sector customer of my current employer.

At the time, I was aware (due to factors that are beyond the scope of this commentary) that this was likely to be a “challenging” deployment… well, I was right, but with hind-sight I can see how badly I under-estimated how “challenging” it ended up being. For the first half of 2016 it was not at all unusual for me to be working 16- to 18-hour days, and the situation only improved in the 4Q of the year (none the less, it is still a very demanding job).

It should be obvious that in this kind of environment, I had little time and even less mental energy to spend on The Angel Brings Fire and (then) The Future Burns Bright; and on top of all that, in 2016 I also encountered some family issues (all, fortunately, “good things”… but time-consuming, none the less) that ate up much of my available personal time to work on the book.

The work situation in 2017 is looking a little less hectic, though, so I should be able to devote more time and effort to finishing off the series. So I’m cautiously optimistic that I should be able to complete The Future Burns Bright (the sequel series), sometime in (late) 2017.

Here’s the status, as of late December 2016 :

• Storm In The North (Book 1, The Future Burns Bright) : Work on the narrative is complete, except for final editing and proof-reading.

• The Race (Part 1) (Book 2, The Future Burns Bright) : Work on the narrative is complete, except for final editing and proof-reading.

• The Race (Part 2) (Book 3, The Future Burns Bright) : Work on the narrative is about 85% complete.

• The Future Alight (provisional title) (Book 4, The Future Burns Bright) : Work on the narrative is about 30% done.

There will also likely be an “Epilogue” book that will follow shortly thereafter; this will explain the outcome of some plot and character elements that (while interesting), are not central to the narrative of the book series (and thus could not be included in its main volumes).

To sum up, I’d like to thank all my readers for their continued interest in, and support of, The Angel Brings Fire and (eventually) The Future Burns Bright, science fiction / modern fantasy / superhero novel series. I know it has been a long time coming… but I believe, when you read The Future Burns Bright, and you find out what happens after the end of The Angel Brings Fire… you won’t be disappointed!

Sincerely

Marcus Shields

Author, The Angel Brings Fire and The Future Burns Bright