A Fond Farewell

Concluding a series is never easy. We scribblers become attached to the worlds we've created and the characters who populate those worlds. If we're lucky, readers become invested in them, too. The temptation to keep exploring possibilities becomes nearly irresistible. (Ask Laurell K. Hamilton -- heh.)

I'm going to miss Win and Pablo, Tole and Ridley, Zee and Sebastian, and the host of secondary characters that went into the making of Utopia-X. And I mean really miss them. I'm still curious about Andrew's fate. I'd like to follow Skeep, because I've grown very fond of him. I'm wondering what other creatures and metroplexes lay beyond the ones I've explored, and what challenges lay ahead for this flawed but brave new world.

But there are so many other stories I want to write . . .

So, with real sadness, I have to cut this world loose and let it spin off into space. But at least I can do so knowing that all my boys have found their Happily Ever After, a fact that's reflected in the title of Book 4.

Below is the blurb for Finding Utopia, coming January 5 from Loose Id.

When human-angel-demon hybrids fall in love, it makes them a little crazy. But that's not the worst of it for Regenerie's Coven of Three. Now that Win, Tole, and Zee are involved in passionate relationships, they can't generate enough sex-energy with each other to activate their indispensable oracle, the Celestine.

The Dark Elves of Bildezir couldn't have picked a better time to attempt a takeover of the Utopian Metroplex. Regenerie's leaders have gone off to seek a solution to their quandary. Their employee Pablo, left behind, decides to party with his former coworkers -- a little too hard. There's ample evidence he's committed a serious indiscretion. Both the Coven's headquarters and Pablo's bond with Win end up in shambles. And here come the elvish warriors.

Kicked to the curb, Pablo has his hands full. He must prove he didn't betray Win during his night of drunken revelry with a group of male prostitutes. And he must figure out how to save both the Coven and the Metroplex from a power-hungry and sexually ruthless enemy with magic on its side.

What does Pablo have going for him, aside from his love and devotion? A twink named Skeep, a mongrel humanoid . . . and a shining seraph.

Inching Closer

Not quite the final version, but damned good enough to show off.

And so we come full circle, back to thoroughly human Pablo Creed

and the Utopian Metroplex of Regenerie.

The first time around, Win saved him.

Now Pablo returns the favor . . .

and extends it to countless others.

(The final book of the Utopia-X series,

coming January 5, 2010 from Loose Id.)

Exploring Savage Places Available Today

Oh please, do not let the LI home-page blurb confound you! Click the title of this post to go directly to the book's sales page. Exploring Savage Places, Book 3 of my Utopia-X series, is now available.

The Pleasureplex of Xanandru, a city governed by a drug-dazed libertine, panders to the basest human instincts. But before its excesses can be reined in, Xanandru will make or break the promising relationships of four honorable men.

I'm currently at work on Utopia-X, Book 4 (as yet untitled). Pablo and Win, whose story kicked off the series, return to center stage. As planned -- by me, anyway -- Utopia-X will not go beyond four or five books.

Exploring Savage Places out on June 9.

Exploring Savage Places, Book 3 of my Utopia-X series for Loose Id, will be released on June 9. I've already received gratifying feedback on this novel from some of the unsung heroines on LI's editorial staff. Always a good feeling when unsolicited positive reactions drift my way!

SEEKING SOMETHING WICKED now available

The long-awaited, much-anticipated (by me) sequel to Looking for Some Touch was released today and is now available at Loose Id. Seeking Something Wicked is Book 2 of the Utopia-X series. The itchy-in-the-pants and love-befuddled Coven of Three must identify, track down, and neutralize a truly bizarre female mutant who shares the philosophy of Templeton the Rat from Charlotte's Web: "Good things come to those who find 'em and shove 'em in their mouth."

By the way, Ridley Barron, one of the book's main characters, doesn't look like the dude on the cover. He looks more like the Prince of Persia -- if you can ignore the Prince's flamboyant outfit and focus on his facial features. So keep that in mind if you read SSW. (I wonder how many other writers get this goofy over how their characters are portrayed on covers. Really, I worry about myself sometimes.)

The World of Utopia-X

The Utopian Metroplex of Regenerie, at the center of my Loose Id novel Looking for Some Touch, is the hub of the Utopia-X series. It's one of many urban centers established in the wake of a global catastrophe known as the Great Event or, by people who don't like to mince words, the Darkening. (The nature of this cataclysm will be revealed in the third book of the series.) Each metroplex is a sovereign city-state, an autonomous entity, and nominally defines itself through its primary product(s) or services.

Thus, Regenerie takes pride in being a clean, green, progressive metroplex, a model of humanitarianism and environmentalism. Its most important export is energy, entirely derived from renewable sources. "Living" medical products (e.g., laboratory-grown organs for transplant) run a close second. Regenerie's closest neighbor, the Iron Metroplex of Villius, is quite different -- a grim, dirty, rough-around-the-edges mining center. Villius figures prominently in Book Two, Seeking Something Wicked, coming February 24 from Loose Id. Perhaps the strangest metroplex of all, the Pleasureplex of Xanandru, will take center stage in Book Three.

Between these city-states are vast and largely undeveloped wilderness regions called Interzones. Humans and Otherbeings who dislike urban bustle have gravitated to these expanses, which aren't under the jurisdiction of any government. Interzone denizens live either in small settlements or isolated dwellings. Not many highways cross interzonal areas. Vehicular traffic is mostly restricted to the metroplexes; interurban travel and commerce take place via sophisticated air and water craft and high-speed, often elevated trains. More radical modes of transportation are on the horizon, thanks to the efforts of scientists and engineers in Specula and Venturus.

Aside from its political organization and advanced technology, this future world isn't terribly different from the world in which we live. After all, it has its roots in the 21st century, when the Great Event took place. Enough people, materials, and documents survived to allow civilization to pick up -- with great effort, of course -- where it left off. Languages, scientific knowledge, religious beliefs, cultural practices, and other 21st-century systems and paradigms were preserved and passed on by the planet's surviving inhabitants. Larger, more mysterious forces, working behind the scenes, were also at play in global renewal. They, too, will be discussed in upcoming books.

The series name, Utopia-X, is a kind of condensed commentary on the often misplaced optimism and enthusiasm that infect this brave new world and Regenerie in particular. The main characters in Looking for Some Touch will continue to discover that the quirkiness of thinking creatures, whether human or nonhuman, has a way of undermining the loftiest visions and best-laid plans for a perfect society . . . and a perfect self.

My next post will be on the unique beings known as hybrids and their role in Utopia-X.