Have I mentioned that I have another book coming out next month?

The Repossessed Ghost served as the first introduction to Mel Walker, a young scoundrel with a heart of gold and a psychic gift. Next month, in the middle of July, The Psychic on the Jury will be out, continuing the story a few years after the events of The Repossessed Ghost.

It’s a novelette, around 13,000 words in length.

“But Brian, how many pages is that?”

Assuming around 225 words per page, that’s about 58 pages. It’s a short story. By way of comparison, The Repossessed Ghost is just under 80,000 words.

Why a short story? Why not a novel?

There are two main reasons. First, a story should be as long as it needs to be, based on the number of characters, settings, and plot elements. I had the idea quite some time ago, wondering what it would be like for someone like Mel to serve as a juror. It’s a perfectly fine idea for a story, but it doesn’t inspire a particularly long tale unless I pad it a bit. The Psychic on the Jury is relatively streamlined, and I think just the right size for what I wanted to say.

The second reason for putting out a shorter story is to give people a cheaper alternative to starting the Mel Walker series. I don’t think $15 is that much for a trade paperback, but that’s still more than some people are willing to invest in checking out a little known writer like myself. I don’t know what the price will be for The Psychic on the Jury, but I assume it’ll be around $5 like so many of the other Dragon Gems.

One can read The Psychic on the Jury first, as it contains no significant spoilers for The Repossessed Ghost. However, they’re probably more fun reading them in chronological order.

If you’re attending Baycon, you’ll be able to buy the book early, just like last year with The Repossessed Ghost. If you’re not attending Baycon, you’ll still be able to pre-order it around then.

This is exciting! A sequel!

And, I’ve made a little more progress on the outline for the next sequel novel.

As I get more concrete information, I’ll share it here. Soon, I’ll post covers, anecdotes about writing The Psychic on the Jury, and other stuff.