Things are fluid.  Much like life, no matter how much we plan and plot, things happen and monkey wrenches are tossed into the best laid plans.  Meh.  Take it in stride or your blood pressure goes up.  When you have a houseful of kids (and now grandkids) you soon learn that things get broke, other things get spilled, things come up missing and NOBODY did it.  If I ever find this invisible person named ‘Nobody’, I think I’m going to wring his neck.  Until then, he’ll continue to get the blame piled on his poor unfortunate soul.

Is there a point to my rambling?  Ha!  You should be so lucky.  Actually, yes, there was.  I’m finding a pretty consistent theme to the questions being asked.  Whether via email, Facebook or posts here on the blog.  What’s next for the Monster Squad?  Will there truly be a ‘next’ book in the series?  The answer is YES.  MS5 Homecoming has been sent to my editor and I’m in the middle of MS6.

MS5 is planned for a September-ish release.  As we’ve all come to realize, it could be early, it could be later.  MS6 has been renamed from Snapback to Wayward Son.  The story took on an interesting twist and although the original title could have worked, Wayward Son is much more appropriate. I have a feeling that MS7 will probably take the title Snapback.

The compilation of the first four was placed on a back burner for a while.  Things at WHC weren’t what was expected and interest in a hardback compilation seems to have dwindled somewhat.  Will it still happen?  Perhaps in time, but there isn’t a huge push to make it so.

Will there be a YA spin-off of the Monster Squad?  As of now, it is only in the planning stages.  All of the ingredients are there.  MS5 & 6 lay the groundwork for a young adult series to spring from the original, but it isn’t etched in stone.  A different YA series has been discussed since Phoenix was originally published but the idea lost steam until recently when it was revived during a brainstorming session.  Totally unrelated to the MS storyline, this YA series would be centered around a shape-shifting family that still had to deal with common problems that most families see touching their lives in one way or another.

Caldera is sitting at the editor’s and the second in the trilogy is now only a few chapters into the story.  Things will have to be revamped in the storyline to prevent appearing as if it is stealing ideas from popular TV shows. Shortly after Caldera II – Return to Yellowstone was begun, certain TV shows aired that paralleled a lot of ideas that were highlighted in the story.  Rather than try to explain why there were so many coincidences, I thought it better to simply rewrite the story and omit anything that gave the appearance of being another person’s idea. So, it’s back to almost the beginning.

I know, that isn’t much in the way of ‘updating’ but honestly, not a lot has been happening.  I slacked off this summer.  Took it easier.  Dealt with things other than writing.  Now, it’s almost time to put the nose to the grindstone and get caught up.  I have to have MS6 & 7 to MDP by September.  And they have to measure up.  I need to have Caldera II to Todd by then as well.  Something tells me that I probably won’t make that one.  Not since I had to delete the better portion of the story.

Stay tuned.  Things are constantly changing, but I’ll keep you up as they happen.

Heath