Book Two Coming Soon

The second novella in the Avia Saga is coming soon . . . Raven Fallen. Check out the cover below. My primary concern in the second book is to humanize Apollo Strauss, to clip his wings so to speak, or to show how they were clipped by paralyzing forces in his life beyond his direct control. He is clearly meant to be a tragic hero in the classic mold, a man who has aimed, time and again, for ethereal heights but whose quest for transcendence has been thwarted, brutally thwarted, by nature. By life itself. Like every tragic hero, he suffers from hubris, from the pride of the strong, but more than that: he suffers from the longing to simply be human. To enjoy what we all deserve to enjoy, no matter how rich or how poor. How famous or how obscure. Belonging. Kinship. Love. Nature's simplest gifts. But also its richest.

Long story short: the upcoming novella will be told from Apollo's point of view, leading up to the scene on the blood-red beach that ends the first book. I don't want you as the reader to despise Apollo. To find him wicked or repulsive. Lenore certainly doesn't. I want you to feel for him, to hope for him, to admire him, and yes, even to pity him. Every fallen man, every broken man, deserves at least that. And hopefully in the end, every fallen man deserves love.

To be honest, I wrestled with the name of the male lead, Apollo. Lenore's name came more naturally, for reasons obvious to any reader of "The Raven." I want the Avia Saga to have some kind of mythic overtones, the resonance of the sacred, but I thought that maybe Apollo was too mythic. You know, too blindingly heavenly. The alternative was Neil, with its shades of kneeling down before forces greater than oneself. But I simply fell in love with the name Apollo, and I think writing is as much a love affair for the author, with its joys and sorrows, its trials and tribulations, as reading is for the reader. Or has the potential to be, if the author's love affair with the material bears fruit.