A TIME OF KINGS - What's it about?

UPDATE: Both editions are now LIVE! <click

I wrote this long epic tale from ideas originating when I was a teenager. I kept the idea alive all of these years waiting until I had time to devote to writing it in the manner in which it deserved. On the way I made a screenplay version, then tried to novelize it twice but failed for lack of identifying the best narrator. Such a grand project as this was supposed to occupy the remaining years of my life. Instead, filled with the Muse, I wrote it out in about six months. 

I know the story backwards and forwards, who does what and when, and what the results are. I can stand back and see the entire stage in a single glance. I can craft a blurb that hints at the content of this vast stage play. But what is it about? Really about? Aside from the setting in a future America (c. 3000) where the states we know today have become kingdoms, who are these people? What do they do?

I see A TIME OF KINGS as really being four stories. 

The first is about our narrator and how he comes into the story. A boy lost on a battlefield is adopted by the young King of Louis - and by extension also becomes a brother to Princess Cristianna and Prince Fridrick. The first part ends when our narrator, given the name Jack, goes with Cristianna when she elopes with the rugged prince of the Illini, Rodrick, who lives in New Cago - the rebuilt city beside the mounds of old Chicago - capital of the Realm of Chicageaux. (Don't get me started on the Quebecker insurgency!) Jack goes with them as a physician, trained in lieu of being eligible to be a prince. The year is 3000 - New Year's Eve. 

The second story could be said to begin with the birth of the twin princes, Nicholas and Darius - although we are not sure who came out first - causing trouble later. They grow as boys will, along with two younger brothers (Argos and Ulris) and a sister (Lira), from rough and tumble antics to sword-fighting lessons, to standing in the Court to watch their father, King Roderick, hold his audiences. In time, daughters of the Minnesot chief come to New Cago and Evina and Jillian become enamored with Nicholas and Ulris. Young love and Courtly romance ensue. They become betrothed, planning to wed in the next year. However, events at Court disrupt those plans. In the disruption, Rodrick decides it is time to divide the Realm among the four sons to rule their own provinces - and keep them away from each other. Lira will wed Duke Tristan and help rule his province.

Nicholas weds Jillian and Ulris weds Evina. All seems well with the Realm. Until evil arrives as the city of New Cago suffers destruction. The insult is personal for Nicholas. Thus begins the third story: the war. Nicholas and Argos know who is to blame: his twin brother Darius who reigns in Cinnati, the city where Jack trained as a physician. Nicholas insists on remaining civil and asks for reparations, yet Darius rebukes him. Finally Argos gets through to Nicholas that only war can settle his grief, and the army marches to Cinnati. Narrator Jack goes as the Chief Medical Officer for the army. The conflict draws in neighboring armies until the Realm is awash with troops. But the battlefield victories do not solve the problem of breaking into the walled city. In the aftermath of victory, a trial is set - trying to keep to Rodrick's system of laws. 

The fourth story could be said to begin when the army returns to New Cago and our narrator, Chief Medical Officer Jack becomes a duke for his service. He gains a wife and has a child on the way. Returning to his duties as Royal physician, Jack finds himself engaged in treating the king's melancholy. The effort troubles Jack, but he takes joy in his growing family, wife and children making demands on him. The years turn over and one day someone from the past arrives. All seems to return to the years before the war, but the new arrival instead brings menace. Jack is brought into schemes by Court ministers and prepares for his own end. As the Realm suffers, Jack does what he can to keep matters in balance. Not until the arrival of another person from the past does everything come together. 

An epilogue brings us back to the beginning of our story. Jack, reclaiming his rightful birth name of Frank Baumann (yes, of the family at the center of the FLU SEASON Saga), tells his tale to the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the Court. It is a long and dedicated life he's lived, and he tells his kin to remember and tell the next generation all that has transpired in the Realm of Chicageaux up to that year of 3079.

A TIME OF KINGS is an old-fashion tale of Court life, the medieval battlefield, power and glory, schemes and vile ruses, what turns a man over and what the costs are for setting the world right. Although focused on the twin princes and their conflict, several women's roles are noteworthy: the queen herself, princesses, Court servants, city folk and even women warriors - for those who may wonder "What about the women?" As always, I have strived to create a full-fledged world on all classes and views, as complete as fifty years of rehearsal can bring to bear on a manuscript. I wish you a pleasant read and, if so moved, a review on Amazon or Goodreads or on your own site, would be gratefully appreciated.

BONUS UPDATE: Although I had scheduled the launch of A TIME OF KINGS for August 8, 2026, I inadvertently pushed the launch button early. Thus, the Kindle edition of the novel is now available. The print/paperback edition will still launch in August 8. 

Next up: The sequel to A TIME OF KINGS follows the "cozy romantasy" misadventures of Baron Haron, a grandson of Jack now grown up and seeking a worthy wife. Haron meets Nelda, a washer woman in search of a fit husband! Available by the December holidays. 

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(C) Copyright 2010-2026 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

Another 5th of the 5th of the 5th!

Dear Fifthers,

It's been a while. A while since I last posted the 5th paragraph of the 5th page of the 5th chapter as a blog post. That was in 2019 - right before I had to bow out for the illness that months later was called Covid-19. You can find that old blog post here, and read the 5th of the 5th of the 5th of my books published up to that date.

When that situation developed in March 2020, when my university switched from in-person classes to online only classes, I was about to publish my next book, a crime thriller called EXCHANGE. Due to the crisis I delayed the launch by two months - only then deciding that people stuck at home might like to read a book.

Then, still stuck at home, I worked on two novels that remained unpublished pending revisions. First was YEAR OF THE TIGER* (the last book on the older 5-5-5 blog post), the THE MASTERS' RIDDLE - the most sci-fiy of all my books as it concerns a non-human protagonist: the captured alien being who fights against his captors and tries to return home.

Then comes the FLU SEASON series. At first it was to be a stand-alone novel of a Mom and her teen son escaping from a city in chaos in the sixth year of a pandemic. The one-off became a trilogy, then another trilogy was added, then a sequel - taking our family members across a couple hundred years.

And that will bring us up to date - as I prepare to launch my next novel, a mighty epic of medieval America, A TIME OF KINGS. You can read about it here. It is not your descendant's medieval drama.

The 5th paragraph of the 5th page of the 5th chapter!

EXCHANGE (2020)

“Have a seat,” he offered, and Bill sat, pulling a worried mask over his face. These were the chairs where people got a talking-to. Angry parents, surly students, the odd Board member or two. The Griff was good at that kind of talking. “Bill,” the principal began, “I’m surprised to see you back so quick. You really need to take time off. Now, I’m no counselor but I think you could do with some counselling. You know? You’ve gone through a heckuva lot. The shock phase is just ending but there’s a long way to go to get you—”

THE MASTERS' RIDDLE (2021)

The Masters come as they choose, the shaman explained, and they take who they choose. She should not let cuts enter her heart or stones grow in her belly. Allowing that would make her as silent as those who had unexpectedly left the community of Aull, those who had vanished like the cool out-breath whenever a mind-cave collapsed. 

THE FLU SEASON SAGA

Book 1: THE BOOK OF MOM (2022)

If the towers were still active we would likely only get official announcements and out-of-service messages. No room for idle chat on private apps. They had blocked ordinary citizens, non-essential phone users before. Calling in food deliveries was allowed, but people sent a list which was quicker. Otherwise, they would be happy to collect our chats to add to their databases, to sort us into good and bad. That was how they determined who’d spread the virus, sector by sector, then sent health police to detain the bad ones and reward the good ones. Mom said it was a racket.

Book 2: THE WAY OF THE SON (2023)

“They sure can,” said Hannah and referenced a song by one of her favorite pandemic bands, Viral Dark: ‘Black Lab, under a viral sky / Breathe in deep, you’re gotta die / Cooking soup / Sneaky group / Spreading their poison all over the world’ – meaning the laboratory, not the dog.

Book 3: DAWN OF THE DAUGHTERS (2023)

My daddy taught me numbers as we cleared the area of marauder bodies. He taught me adding and subbing. We pulled one body over the slope to what he called the graveyard – where the wolves knew there would be food – so four bodies with one rolled over the ledge left three bodies, for example. He kept quizzing me and I kept giving him the right answers.

Book 4: THE BOOK OF DAD (2024)

It had been Mother’s habit to go over to her parents’ grave at the edge of the clearing, kneel and talk to them each day. She made me kneel beside her, put my hands together for prayer. She told them about her latest child: “This is Fritz,” she told them, “named for our long ago ancestor on account of him being this kind of some new beginning for us, all us, like that ancestor did long time ago, him and that tuba.” She apologized to Grandma Hannah for getting together with Frank, my father, the same man who had a daughter with Hannah: my big sister Cherie, who I’d never met because she was so much older that she was already married and lived far away before I was born.

Book 5: THE GRANDDAUGHTER (2024)

We stand on the production line, Eve across from me, as paper boxes move along in strict order. Other women, wearing aprons, stand to either side of us. Each of us places an item into the box as it moves past us. Eve’s job is to fold down the top of the box after I place the final item in: a cracker in a clear wrapper. But the lid has wings which always catch on the side walls and crumple the box. She was trained for an hour before put on the line but she gets admonished countless times by supervisors wielding slapsticks. I offer to trade tasks with her but our supervisors say they can’t allow it based on our papers. So we have to endure it.

Book 6: THE GRANDSONS (2025)

“You know I went to the dentistry college in Kanza City,” I like to remind him. “No matter that I’m Sheriff Baumann’s grandson, I made top marks in the classes there. No matter that my mama was Kanza. I’m the best of both of them.”

THE WARRIORS BAUMANN (call it Book 7 if you like) (December 2025)

He tramped along the trail. The vegetation closed on him, twigs brushing his arms and knees as he rode on. Perhaps this was the wrong trail. Wasn’t the one he and Rory had traveled going to the fort. He sensed he might be lost. Better to return the way he’d come, start again from the gate.

And, as a sneak peek, here is the fifth paragraph of the fifth page of the fifth chapter of the forthcoming A TIME OF KINGS - launching August 8, 2026.

And so the world lay as if carved into stone: the central Realm of Chicageaux, their capital New Cago, the Royal family and their kin, and allies spreading across a fair portion of the Americus, making a grand kingdom – a Realm! King Rodrick sat pleased upon his great throne in his great Hall within his great palace, growing bored upon his soft seat with the world at peace. And a steward would keep his goblet filled with beverages from across the Realm. Another of the staff would bring him reports of news from other lands. One night or another he would take his rest with the Queen.

There is another book that follows A TIME OF KINGS, with only a working title until I find the perfect name for it. And I do have the fifth chapter written already. Thus, I could include the fifth paragraph of the fifth page, but let's not rush into it. Let it go through the thorough review process and be sent to the launch pad before we subject it to blog posts.

*YEAR OF THE TIGER, although launching in 2020, was listed on the 2019 "5 of 5 of 5" post because those books were listed in chronological order of when they were written. Year of the Tiger, a dramatic story of hunters competing to kill a man-eater, has a sordid history of revision and submission and more revision and more submission before finally being perfected for 2020. 

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(C) Copyright 2010-2026 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

Themes in the FLU SEASON Saga

By now you've gotten your copy of THE GRANDSONS and are quickly learning what happened to Bart, the young son of Maggie from Book 5. It is a tragic story, but not without some joys, as Maggie wishes for her son. Even Bart himself sees connections between events in his life and those who went before him.

Now that THE GRANDSONS (Book 6) has launched (albeit unexpectedly early), I can reveal some of the themes that weave through the series. In this latest volume, I didn't hold back letting the theme show. It is in the epigram at the beginning, a quote from "The Way of the Son" - the opera Maggie composes based on the notebooks of her great-grandfather, Sandy. In fact, Book 2 is titled THE WAY OF THE SON and follows Sandy and his young family as they struggle to survive after leaving the island where they briefly had sanctuary. That year-long adventure becomes a test for Sandy. He nearly succeeds only to ultimately fail in DAWN OF THE DAUGHTERS (Book 3).

The Way of the Son is fraught with danger, menace at every turn, and a lot of stupid mistakes that pop up when you least can handle them.

 

Sandy writes the line in one of his notebooks, and Maggie draws from it for her opera at the end of THE GRANDDAUGHTER (Book 5). Bart sees the start of her composing effort before he disappears. Yet the theme stays with Bart, haunts him, providing a challenge for him. He takes it as a test for himself, believing he must do better than his ancestor did. Bart, too, has many of the same flaws and does the same kind of things Sandy failed at. Bart is a flawed character, in literary critic terms, who tries and tries but fails as much as he succeeds. Partly it is due to his circumstances, but more often his varied choices, perceptions, and how moments turn him back and forth like a weathervane in the wind. In the end, the storm comes for him.

As THE GRANDSONS launches, I've been writing a new book, what I could call Book 7. It began as a lark, something to do while THE GRANDSONS sat to await one more read-through/revision. Tying the timeline together with other books of mine (see this post), I set this new story more than 200 years after Bart's time. Civilization has fallen further, become medieval - even in Missouri. It shall be titled THE WARRIORS BAUMANN.

At one point our heroes meet some actors who perform the famous play "The Way of the Son" - based on the songfest by Maggie Baumann. Everyone knows some of the songs from the old opera, it seems. As a comedy, Book 7 plays the play for laughs, twists lines so they now sound like legend rather than the scribbling of a desperate teen boy trying to save his young wife and daughter during a pandemic.

Another major theme in the series involves the often tumultuous relationship between mothers and sons.

THE BOOK OF MOM (Book 1) gives us Sandy and his single, never-married mother, Polly, a music professor and tuba player. She's gotten along on her own for most of her life and often lords over her autistic son. Sandy sees her behavior as love, protecting him, encouraging him to stand tall and be strong as the pandemic worsens and they flee their city. It is time for him to be tough, so his mother pushes him, teases him, makes him be strong for what lies ahead. Up to a point where Sandy realizes his mother's weaknesses and unrealistic advice. He tries to save her only to fail. His failure gets him and his young wife/cousin exiled from the island sanctuary - leading to THE WAY OF THE SON where he must grow up fast and take charge, though often making mistakes - much like Bart does in Book 6.

To a lessor extent, there is mother - daughter conflict in DAWN OF THE DAUGHTERS, but adult Sandy still struggles to reconcile his relationship with his mother. 

As baby Isla grows into a young woman, she becomes the mother who has conflicts with her own son, Fritz (who goes by Frank in adulthood). Fritz also tries to figure out his mother in THE BOOK OF DAD (Book 4) as she reaches the end of her life. Being in the reconstructed capital with all of its Ideal Society rules and restrictions, Fritz/Frank fights to tell the truth about what happened during and after the pandemic - even as government entities, including his own older half-sister (Isla's daughter) who is now in charge, refuse to accept it as truth. This Big Sister insists the pandemic never happened: only a few localized pockets of sickness. Fritz/Frank upholds his mother's lived experiences to his detriment.

And in THE GRANDSONS we find young Bart at odds with his mother, Maggie, who wishes him to follow in her musical footsteps only to see him take more interest in his uncle's ranch and desire to follow him as a lawman. As Bart struggles to "find himself" he knows he can't face his mother again after what has happened. Yet his mother continues to haunt him as he goes through his life. Dreams, nightmares, visions, voices, ghosts seem to rag on him too many times, keeping him on edge. 

A final major theme weaving through the series is the idea of needing someone to carry on: the family name, the family blood, ideas about connectedness and salvation in survival. 

In each book characters raise the idea of carrying on the family, like it is a crucial task - which would make sense in a time of pandemic, virus, and death. Who will survive? By golly, we need someone to survive. That idea pressures the characters to try to have babies. Even a group of scientists has set up a breeding program since half the population has been lost through disease, war, and starvation. 

It isn't so much a matter of the author's personal beliefs (I know many people do not want children or are unable to have children), but in this story setting the urgency to make a baby is truly a matter of survival. It is a realistic situation, a plausible mindset. Each generation in the series eventually must rely on the younger generation to care for them and to carry on the family, to continue civilization, and therefore humanity - a universal theme.

This final theme shall definitely reappear in THE WARRIORS BAUMANN, leading to the ultimate novel to be titled: A TIME OF KINGS.

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(C) Copyright 2010-2025 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

Novel vs Short Story?

In my writing life, I've been confronted many times buy this age-old question: to write short or to write long. If you've followed my so-called career, you likely know that I prefer the longform writing. I suppose it's because in the longer format I have room to tell a full story according to my imagination. The short story format, in my humble opinion, is meant to present a singular incident. The longform presents a series of incidents. In that way, a short story could, if a writer had a mind to do so, be simply one of many incidents that could be expanded into a novel.

Let me give you a little history of my writing. In my younger days I had pen and paper to write my stories. That was a limitation: my ideas had to be short. When I gained the technology of a typewriter (first the Smith-Corona manual, then an IBM Selectric, an electric machine) I could write with more ease and my output expanded.

However, I still faced limitations. Hit the wrong key and you had to type the whole page all over again. I regularly typed my homework nevertheless. In high school, in fact, I typed out my ideas once in the form of a 66-page single-spaced rip-off of 1984. I stapled the pages together and let a friend read it. He passed it to other friends. Before I got it back, it probably had been read by half the school (a small student body in those days).

I planned a long epic book in middle school, started writing by hand in a notebook, made notes and planned the rest of it. With a typewriter, I could (a few years later) type out a screenplay version of the novel I had planned. It was a quicker way to complete the story, get it on paper, with the expectation I could novelize it later. (Still haven't done that!) 

So in my typewriter days, a short story was merely a novel in outline form. Later, with my first computer (Tandy 1000) - enabling me to save my writing and return to it later for editing - my stories gained length. I composed a pair of novellas (short novels), trying to write longer works. My advancement to a full PC machine with Windows 3.1 completed my transformation into a novel writer.

By then I knew I wanted to write books - not merely stories. I read a lot of novels (mostly sci-fi an fantasy) and knew I wanted to tell big stories. Epic stories. With my acceptance into an MFA program - where I'd hoped to learn how to get a break into the wonderful world of novelism - I was forced to write short stories. 

We crafted the New Yorker magazine's style of story: urbane, subtle, restrained, focused on thoughts and feelings rather than overt action. Translation: not much happens yet it devastates a character in the story. I got it: it was a fair exercise for learning to write fiction. I switched from sci-fi and fantasy stories (my mini-novels) to these "literary" fictions. I saw the light, as it were, and became a true believer. Characters before cool stuff.

Point taken. I switched from the cool idea being the center of the story to a main character who readers would care about and follow through the story as said character dealt with the cool idea. My MFA thesis was a novel I titled A BEAUTIFUL CHILL which is a fine example of literary fiction: the action is almost exclusively in dialog and sublime moments of relationship conflicts. I also tried to skewer the English department and its vagaries. It remains one of my most favorite novels.

But I did write short stories, measured by length of pages and number of words. Also counted by the plot or conflict in them: a single thing/problem/incident/episode/ moment-in-time. For me, the story idea came to dictate whether it would become a short story, a novella, or a full novel. I liked big ideas and that is why I've mostly written novels. However, I did write enough stories to fill an anthology. That may be my next or final project once this final volume of my FLU SEASON Saga comes out later this year with THE GRANDSONS.

As a Myrddin author, I've shared a few stories in the anthologies we've put out over the past few years (click on the covers for links). One of my better short stories was deemed so good (effective, compelling) that I built a whole novel around it. Another short story came from a prompt the anthology editor gave us. Others were more silly passages, humorous even, like a writing exercise and yet they were worth the reading. 

I fashioned a short story from 2 chapters in my novel A BEAUTIFUL CHILL and titled the story "Lust" because it illustrates a variety of definitions of that word. So, again, the idea determines the format I use; most of my ideas require the larger format of a novel. I need elbow room to tell the complete story.

This is my one and only TEDTalk. Thank you for coming!

Oh, wait! There's more! Speaking of my final volume in the FLU SEASON Saga, I am deep into a thorough revision - usually the word count expands during this phase as I fill out scenes and make the narrative richer - and will set it aside for a month before returning for a close final edit. I expect the finished novel to be available by the end of this year (2025).

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(C) Copyright 2010-2025 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

The Usual February Blues

In the greater scheme of things, February is clean-up time. Saddled with both fresh starts and fading glory, the second month is inexplicably stuffed full of many major events. 

First comes Groundhog Day which applies only to Pennsylvania but for whom many other folks rely. 

Next comes the Super Bowl, the biggest bowl ever to be filled! This year, however, the vaunted champions did not capture the trifecta. Never fear, I fully expect the team to return to the big game next season, perhaps facing the same opponent.

After the big game comes the little one's birthday, although she is not so little now, all grown up and on her own in an exciting career. 

Then we have the Day of Presidents, formerly Mr. Lincoln's birthday. Rather than celebrate the two most important presidents, Lincoln and Washington, Congress swept all the top politicians into a single day. Thus, such chief executives as Millard Fillmore and William Henry Harrison (president for only eight days) get equal billing with the heavy hitters, like Mr. Taft and Mr. McKinley.

It is a slow slog into March and hopes of Spring Break after that, but we need those two weeks to rest and prepare for what we've all been waiting for. And what is that, you may be wondering?

The completion of the first full draft of the final volume in my FLU SEASON Saga (formerly a trilogy and two sequels), THE GRANDSONS (a.k.a. Book 6).

Now I shall read and revise, as is my usual routine, ready or not. THE GRANDSONS is a long story, a novel within a novel, but I trust the story will be sufficiently engaging to keep the pages turning as you experience the post-apocalyptic landscape though a host of Western tropes and outlaw vibes, futuristic cities, religious fervor, territorial conquests, nuclear disaster and impending doom for everyone! Yes, an uplifting epic for everyone!

Here is an excerpt from the first chapter:

A crowd gathers to see who this figure might be, as none have come from the east for years – none worth addressing, at the least. Stragglers with tales of flameless fire and putrid illness. A wave of death. Fleeing criminals hoping for a break. The rare lost tax man or some ignorant seeker of opportunity, random scalawags and bold outlaws. A gunslinger or two. A foolish family hoping to survive.

Dark in road-rough garb, the figure glares from beneath the rim of the felt hat at the townsfolk gathered: passersby, the curious, morning shoppers, businessmen going to offices. Another cow town, the stranger seems to acknowledge with a disappointed shift of chin. They’re harmless, and unarmed, the dark figure notes.

The figure, looking more to be a woman in man’s clothing as the people examine, lays her hand upon the grip of one of two pistols set upon her hips, ready to use it.

“Skinner Canyon?” asks the stranger in mild tone.

“Yes, ma’am,” says an older man, wiping his moist brow, beady eyes set in a permanent squint. “This’s the place.” He gives her a long look, not approving. “What’s yer bidness in town?”

Townsfolk can see the two pieces of cargo lain in the cart. There is a crudely constructed wooden box, looking like pine, large enough and in the shape to hold a laid-out man. The wood is well-smudged with dirt, grimy like it was dragged up from the earth. A coffin, they presume, nailed tightly shut. Who could be inside? 

The trend these days when querying agents and publishers is to construct what is called a Mood Board or Vision Board using snippets of images, perhaps brief text, to help entice would-be investors in the story. I get it. Like a Pinterest posting, which I did long ago. Here is one I threw together last night. It should give you a good feel for the story.

More details next time. I'll give away some of the plot but with no spoilers. You will recognize some characters from Book 5: THE GRANDDAUGHTER and some of the setting from that novel. This novel, however, moves far from that town into truly sci-fi territory without (I hope) getting too sci-fi techy or relying too much on familiar tropes of a post-apocalyptic world (zombies, etc.). I have an overall positive view of the future, but one which turns away from the technology that kills us all in most sci-fi movies. The ending here may not be "happy" in a Mary Sue sense, but will be satisfying.

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(C) Copyright 2010-2025 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

The FLU SEASON SAGA ends!

Dear Friends and Followers,

Back in the ancient year of 2019 the beginning of the end began. That's a mouthful but not an incorrect tautology. Things happened, which prompted me to want to write something. I had trouble getting started. I spent the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 planning a story which I finally got started later that year. I imagined what was then our present situation - lockdowns, restrictions, shortages, desperation, fear - and took it six years into the future - a possible future, granted.

And so the FLU SEASON saga was born. At first intended to be a single novel, it expanded into a trilogy before the first book was completed. I had only a rough idea of what would happen in those next two books, yet I wasn't worried. The characters would tell me everything and I would just write about it. They had compelling stories full of heartache and heartbreak to share but also triumphs and joys. I cried and cheered along with them, I confess, unwilling to acknowledge my fingers were the cause of all their ups and downs. THE GRANDDAUGHTER, the fifth book in the saga (out in September 2024), was a particular pleasure to write, being lighter even amusing more than the other books.

After three books, I thought the series was finished at a trilogy. Yet a new idea kept pestering me so I started a fourth book, calling it a sequel. But the sequel led to an even newer idea, something lighter as I imagined it. As I concluded that fifth book, I had ideas for a sixth book, which I am working on now. I feel that I can end the series with this final book - but it will be a long one, covering a lot of territory as we venture further into the uncertain future. I may introduce zombie-like denizens of the desert at some point (medically accurate, of course).

THE GRANDSONS is the final volume of this saga, following the lives of two grandsons and introducing a third grandson. Life has gotten worse for the citizens of Skinner Canyon with a new menace from the destruction of the cities on the east coast coming for them and more criminality in their own locale. They don't know what has happened in the east, only that it can't be anything good. They are much too concerned with the big trial in town. The body of an infamous outlaw has turned up and everyone wants to know how he met his end - being related to a prominent citizen of the town. 

This final book is a frame story. We begin in their present day, set up the situation and get the trial started. Then we jump back fifteen years to see how we got to this present day situation. Classic framework. However, as I am literally (literally!) making it up as I go along, it is moving slowly. I have a roadmap but the curves are sharp, the hills steep, and there are plenty of chuck holes slowing me, but I know the way forward and will get to the destination eventually - likely late in 2025, possibly early 2026.

I frequently vowed to write a Western, a genre I never believed I was capable of, having little knowledge of that era in American history or the nomenclature of horses, etc. But like how it took some time to "find the way in" to the first book, THE BOOK OF MOM, the way in was a scene in a dream I didn't ask for. I wrote out that scene and the start could begin. Now there is a lot of webs to weave building the story, and then unweave them as the story unwinds to its shocking yet heartfelt conclusion. I have already written that final scene.

As I create this final volume of the saga, doing what I love to do, please enjoy reading the previously completed books in the saga. You can find them all in paperback or for Kindle at this universal link: https://mybook.to/PaxnhJD

Your support has been and always will be greatly appreciated! 

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(C) Copyright 2010-2024 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

THE GRANDDAUGHTER Launches!

The fifth book in the FLU SEASON series, THE GRANDDAUGHTER, launches today or tomorrow depending on the internet gods, while the ebook version for Kindle has already been available since September 10. Click here to get the ebook - the paperback link will be here as soon as I get it (should be September 15). 

UPDATE (9/15): Due to the vagaries of the internet the paperback version's availability will be delayed by 2-3 days.

UPDATE (9/16)! The book gods have ruled! The paperback link is here. Thanks for your patience.

You can get the entire series (five books) here.

Does that end the series? Hmmm. I thought I was writing a stand-alone novel when I wrote the first book, THE BOOK OF MOM, but I realized half way into it that the story would have to continue. Because I couldn't see a two-book series, I immediately went for a trilogy while writing Book 2 THE WAY OF THE SON. However, as I was concluding Book 3, DAWN OF THE DAUGHTERS, I had ideas for another book. Then, while writing Book 4, THE BOOK OF DAD (out this past June), I had ideas for Book 5 THE GRANDDAUGHTER. I began to wonder when the madness would end while hoping it never would. (I am currently well into the writing of Book 6, THE GRANDSON, which should be the final book in the series.)

FLU SEASON is a series. Each book follows after the previous book. Each book, however, is a stand-alone novel, complete in itself. A lot of series are set up this way: yes, you are meant to read them in order for the best experience but each volume can stand as its own story regardless of having read other volumes. A character may appear in more than one book and the timeline traverses the series, and in that way they are linked. But standing as individual novels, the characters do catch you up and give you what you need to know from earlier books so you're not left confused. (Note: I never make use of the infamous "As you know, Bob..." constructions.

Here is a look at what you can expect in each novel of the series, as tweeted previously.

FLU SEASON (Book 1): THE BOOK OF MOM

Everything was fine, just me and Mom. And her precious tuba. Then the pandemic came and everyone had to adapt to a new normal. Until the new normal became unbearable.

We awoke one morning and the news was worse than before. Food rationing, no power, gas lines. Mom decided we should leave, wait it out at my grandparents' farm, but danger followed us, all the way to the coast, trying to find safety with family members who instead needed our help more than we needed theirs.

I had to trust Mom to find a sanctuary - hopefully not an island where other survivors are trying to set up their own society with rules as strict as back in the city. And definitely not a place where our family secrets will be exposed. 

That's the last thing we need as we wait for this pandemic to end.

FLU SEASON 2: THE WAY OF THE SON

Everything changes when you lose your mother, even more if you lose her during a pandemic when everyone is fighting for survival and it is your responsibility to protect her and you fail. 

Now you have a wife and baby to protect in the savage outerlands - where danger lurks in every shadow, and it's every man for himself.

I call it the Way of the Son - definitely not the way Mom would've gone. 

The road is finite, and well-marked, so you only need to go along it, following the path that’s already set before you. Yet sometimes it will lead you in the wrong direction. Sometimes you will end up in the wrong place. You have to find your way back home again, wherever that may be - even through a deadly pandemic.

FLU SEASON 3: DAWN OF THE DAUGHTERS

It was hard enough trying to start from scratch after the pandemic destroyed half of everything. Best to settle far from anyone, hiding in the forest of a national park.

But with militia from the new government coming by, rebels still on the loose, and new neighbors settling nearby, the new normal was a mix of intense danger and surprising joy.

But which kind of life would win in the end?

How can you raise a bunch of daughters in this kind of world?

Hiding away in the forest of a national park, Sandy's family (from Books 1 & 2) waits for the world to return to normal.

But they soon discover other families have the same idea. As the survivalists of the national park work together, his family faces challenges and opportunities. They suffer through the vagaries of an on-going civil war between North and South territories. 

The conflict splits the family into convergent destinies, leaving Sandy's daughter, Isla, to carry the family into the future, living to witness the reconstruction of a new society.

Book 4: THE BOOK OF DAD

Fritz is sent for rehabilitation, then assigned a street cleaner job in the city, just for making a video exposing the true history of the ten-year pandemic and civil war that followed - based on everything his mother, Isla, has told him all his life - whether he wanted to hear it or not.

 

Now he finds himself in trouble again in the capital city as he tries to make sense of this Ideal Society. With weekly counseling and constant surveillance, Fritz is going crazy. Only getting back his family's tuba might save him.

That crime sets him up for a crucial act which lands him in the Department of Social Order. Only a reprieve by the Governor herself - the self-styled Big Sister - can save him this time. But it comes with a cost, one he may not be able to pay.  

The next chapter in the FLU SEASON saga follows Isla's youngest child, now grown and a husband and father, as he fights for truth, justice, and a way out.

FLU SEASON 5: THE GRANDDAUGHTER

Isla Baumann is born in the seventh year of the great pandemic (Books 1-3). Her last child, Fritz, goes to the capital (Books 3-4) and suffers under the restored government's oppression. His children escape to a small town in the western corner of the nation.

THE GRANDDAUGHTER (Book 5) follows Maggie's life as a young woman with ambition stuck in a dusty cowtown. She decides what this post-pandemic town needs is a children's band. But first she must return to the dirty capital to claim the family's tuba. 

Following in her great-great-grandmother's footsteps, she vows to play the tuba and gets a musical instrument salesman to help her start the band. But there are plenty of obstacles to achieving her goals, a struggle which brings her to the ultimate decision that will save the capital and the nation.

I hope you enjoy this pandemic/post-pandemic/dystopian family saga which, back in March 2020, I didn't intend to write. But I had some time on my hands while staying home the rest of the year. This is the result and I'm quite pleased with it. Even as I get older and other things work less well, my twisted mind can still dream up twisted stories to entertain myself - and you, if you so choose. Thanks as always for your support all of these years.

I expect FLU SEASON 6: THE GRANDSON to be finished sometime in 2025, likely toward autumn as I'm not in any hurry. 

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(C) Copyright 2010-2024 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

FLU SEASON, a pandemic/post-pandemic series! Where are we now?

It has been a long time coming. I wasn't sure I could do it. But then there was the first book, coming when I was good and ready by 2022. And I knew by the middle of writing it that there would be a second book - and with a second book it had to be a trilogy. Then came the hard part: a fourth book. 

My first two trilogies (THE DREAM LAND TRILOGY and the STEFAN SZEKELY VAMPIRE TRILOGY) both lent themselves to a fourth book. However, while I started a fourth book for each trilogy, they went nowhere due to other things taking my time. This time, I have time and plenty of it, plus a multigenerational cast that loves to throw plots at me.

Now I'm thrilled to say that not only is Book 4: THE BOOK OF DAD launching this coming week, timed to Father's Day, but I have completed Book 5: The Granddaughter's Tale, coming later this year. And, if I dare suggest it, another book has been started. These three books would make a whole 'nother trilogy!

I know it can be confusing with news and updates on Books 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 scattered around the platforms. Let me do a quick summary of each book and make clear the status of each without giving away too much of the story.

The initial idea came, obviously, from the very real pandemic we experienced early in 2020. I wanted to write such a story but it was too immediate for me to create fiction. A couple years later, with further thought and planning and the return to normal, I had a way to start it and knew how the story would proceed - without any consideration at the time of it being more than a one-off stand-alone novel. I would begin the story in a pandemic much like what we experienced, using references we can all identify, but start my novel after six years of it, now a lot worse and with a lot more collapsing of society.

Books 1, 2, and 3 are available now in paperback and for Kindle.

1 The Book of Mom

Autistic teen son Sandy narrates what he and his sassy single mother go through in deciding to flee the city and what they endure once they leave. Mom is a professional tuba player and music professor; Sandy just started virtual college. Heading for his grandparents' small farm, they discover that the ravages of the city have spread into the countryside. What was to be a safe place to wait out the rest of the pandemic becomes a dead end. Plan B goes into effect. They travel on to find other relatives and discover how they have been managing, with plenty of tales of horror and grief. Plan B becomes Plan C. A lot goes wrong as they continue seeking a sanctuary. Eventually, they return to the coastal island where they've vacationed during past summers, a place now with its own unsettling rules. (More here.)

[Note: Unlike a lot of pandemic/plague and apocalyptic stories, FLU SEASON doesn't rely on zombies or other tropes of science fiction but strives to present a realistic world not far from what we might actually experience in the immediate future.]

2 The Way of the Son

Sandy narrates the journey he and his teen cousin Hannah are forced to undergo through the savage 'outerlands', bearing Mom's tuba and Baby Isla. They seek sanctuary but find the land even more dangerous, lawlessness everywhere, and face dangers that make them tougher. They also encounter the start of fighting between factions of the remnant government and rebels while finding other friends and relatives. Sandy must quickly become a man, to make his mother proud and his wife confident of his ability to protect them. (More here.)

[Note: Although our pandemic began in late 2019, in order to keep the story from becoming dated, I do not give a specific year in the series. You can think of Book 1 as beginning in 2026, if you like; count up for the next 80 years to cover subsequent generations.]

3 Dawn of the Daughters

Narrated by Isla - at the beginning she is a child of four, old age by the final pages. She hides out with her parents in the forest of a national park. They soon meet other survivalists and agree to work together and protect each other. Believing they may be the last of humanity, they try to have more births. Adapting to the lawless post-pandemic world is difficult enough, but then Sandy is taken away to serve in a militia - escapes, captured by the other side to fight for them, then put in a POW camp. Later marauders come, taking the women away. Isla grows up in the idyllic forest as a child but she must become strong as a teen and as a young woman in order to survive the traumas of the newly reconstructed society. She only finds comfort and safety in her later years - as documented by her last child, Fritz, who becomes a video technician in the rebuilt society. (More here.)

4 The Book of Dad (available June 14)

Fritz returns to the capital from rehabilitation, bitter and disillusioned, unsure why he was sent there or who sent him. He knows it is because of the video he made of his elderly mother telling her stories of the pandemic years and the lawlessness that followed. Now the government says none of it happened and Fritz must learn the 'true' history. As he struggles to settle into his new life, miserable and paranoid, his neurotic behavior gets him into trouble again - until Big Sister herself confronts him and offers a hard bargain. (More here.)

5 The Granddaughter's Tale (complete; coming later in 2024)

Fritz's daughter Maggie moves out west to Skinner Canyon with her mother and brothers, a place where their cousin Faith fled from the national park years before. Now grown up, Maggie gains a sister in her cousin Eve, as she plans to start a town band, trying to follow the legacy of her great-great-grandmother Polly (Sandy's mother). First, she must return to the capital to reclaim the tuba. It seems an impossible task, especially when she makes a few missteps. But her staunch determination takes her into the post-pandemic music world.

6 A Grandson's Revenge (tentative title; drafting)

Leaving Skinner Canyon, Fritz's grandson goes with his uncle's posse in pursuit of a notorious outlaw, then gets separated, finds himself in trouble and suffers through dangerous situations which change him into an outlaw himself.

I'm certain that by the time I have finished Book 6 and launched it, I may be out of ideas. This plan also thwarts any attempt I have considered of finishing a few unfinished works sitting on my computer. For example, when I was 13, I mapped out a vast medieval epic - too large for me to start in those days of manual typewriters so I put it aside for my retirement years. Then I write this Flu Season series instead!

However, in Book 5, I manage to tie the story to the way things will be in the future that is that unfinished medieval epic (starts in the year 3000). I also let characters mention the way things are over in Europe during the Book 5 time period, thus linking Flu Season with the Stefan Szekely Vampire Trilogy (Book 2 starts in 2028, Book 3 starts in 2099). (More here.) 

Aren't words amazing?

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(C) Copyright 2010-2024 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.