With Zack Tolliver #10 in the hands of fans, we have already embarked upon Zack’s next adventure. Now is this writer’s favorite time, when the story begins and hundreds of empty pages wait to be filled. Anything can happen; the possibilities at the start of the journey are boundless.

Zack’s new destination has been decided, the crime has been committed, and the his work is about to begin. We will delve deeply into a new location, a different culture, where new dangers lurk to threaten Zack and our friend Eagle Feather.

There is something compelling about entering the fictional unknown. Who among Zack’s past colleagues will share his adventure? Who will threaten him? What will be the stakes? For this author, each morning at the computer will involve the excitement of discovery, feeling the emotional highs and lows Zack will experience.

Then there are those real-life circumstances research will inevitably reveal to complicate the plot. What are the forces and conflicts in people’s lives in this location? What are the mysteries and legends in the area? I can’t wait to find out.

There is a strangeness to writing fiction novels. The excitement, the dread, the highs and lows of the moment while writing cannot be shared. Not with anyone. It is rather like watching a movie alone. Not until the first reader enters this fictional world months later does the sharing occur. But by then, for the writer, those are yesterday’s feelings.

Perhaps this is why an author so delights in discussing his/her books with readers; the chance to regenerate those feelings experienced while writing in solitude, if only to a degree. And maybe it is, in part, an affirmation of the author’s sanity, to know that a few words he strings together on the screen that cause this roller coaster of emotions within him while all alone in a closed room are actually, one day, affirmed by others.